


Catastrophe Theory

by notadashi



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Disney - All Media Types
Genre: Comic Book Stuff, Fire, More Fire, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sequel, Unofficial Sequel, new villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-07 20:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 40,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3182669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notadashi/pseuds/notadashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The catastrophe theory shows that small changes in factors can lead to large and dramatic changes in an overall system.</p>
<p>In the months after Tadashi's death, Hiro is learning how to live life as an only child. He goes to school, he has his friends, he saves San Fransokyo, the usual superhero stuff. But one little factor of his life can change leading to a world of difference not only for him, but for the rest of his friends and family too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Far too Young to Die

Heat. That’s all he could remember. Heat and light. Light too bright for his eyes.

Tadashi squinted. All he had to do was find Professor Callaghan and get out of the building. Not too hard unless you take in the fact the building was currently on fire.

 _One foot in front of the other_ Tadashi thought. Smoke filled his mouth, his nose, his lungs. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t see. His eyes watered, his hands shook, the fire was getting hotter, hotter, burning, burning.

 _Almost… there… THERE!_ Tadashi could see him, could see Callaghan. Something was wrong though. Callaghan stood calmly, with Hiro’s neurotransmitter on his head. _What…?_ Callaghan looked up and saw Tadashi. He raised his arm towards Tadashi, and everything went white… then dark.

**_“TADASHI!”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, here we go! I hope you've enjoyed so far. This is just the prologue so the chapters get longer after this, promise.
> 
> This is my first work and I'm still learning and trying out writing so any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Also, you can find me on tumblr at notadashi.tumblr.com for updates and more Big Hero 6 stuff. Hope to see you back again!


	2. The Man in the Basement

Being in cryosleep was a strange feeling. One moment you were awake and the next, nothing. Instantly you fell into a dark, dreamless sleep with no sense of time and no sense of the world around you. And when you woke up it was like you had blinked and were suddenly somewhere else.

When Abigail Callaghan woke up with the paramedic standing over her she was disoriented. She had no idea what was going on, the last thing she remembered was colour. Colours so beautiful she couldn't describe them. Swirls of pink and blue and orange blending together to form fluffy clouds and intricate patterns. Then suddenly nothing. Just the blink of an eye and suddenly the paramedic was looking down on her asking her name.

"Abigail Callaghan," she answered.

"Alright Abigail, you're going to be fine."

\-----------------

Standing outside her home on a quiet street in San Fransokyo, Abigail sighed. Over her three days in the hospital she had gradually pieced together what had happened. She remembered launching into the Krei Tech portal, but everything else afterwards was put together from security clips and news stories.

After launching into hyperspace, a malfunction occurred in the technology causing the portals to be destroyed. In grief, her father had assumed her death and blamed Krei for his loss.

After that, she learned, her father sought revenge by stealing fourteen year old Hiro Hamada's microbots invention.

Her father had caused a lot of destruction and had even killed Hiro's brother. Collateral damage he had claimed. She had a lot of apologies to make on his behalf.

Stepping into her home, Abigail looked around. Her father's antics had left their house untidy, and then their absence for half a week had left the place begging to be cleaned up.

The newspapers were piling up on the kitchen table and the plants lined up on the windowsill were wilting. A fine layer of dust was beginning to cover the shelves and who knows what her father had left in the lab in the basement. She decided to start there, dangerous things could have been left alone in the lab.

Walking into the basement, Abigail turned on the harsh fluorescent lights. Squinting in the sudden brightness, she looked around. Tools, books, and spare parts littered the floor and the work benches. Abigail was confused. Her father was never so untidy and disorganized. He had always emphasized to her how important it was to keep her workspace tidy, so why wouldn't he keep his clean?

Walking further into the room, Abigail glimpsed a new machine in the corner, partly hidden in the clutter. It must have been added – or created – after the Krei Tech incident. She approached the white tube and considered the buttons and lights scattered on the surface of it. The machine made a quiet humming noise and an LCD display on the left side glowed green and read ENGAGED in large letters. The glass was frosted over with a thin layer of ice and a dark shape was vaguely outlined underneath.

Then it all made sense. The machine was a cryotube, similar to her pod she had been in in hyperspace, but this one looked more like it was meant to stay stationary than to actually go anywhere. Wiping down the glass, the body inside finally came into focus. A young man of about 20 lay inside with a peaceful expression on his face. He had short, black hair and a slender build. His pale skin and oval face made him seem strangely familiar to her, like he was someone she had met long ago and had forgotten with the distance of time.

Abigail thought hard. Where had she seen this face before? She tried to recall family members, friends, movies, and scholars. She considered the man’s face and vague memories of a news story came to mind. Then the man’s identity came to her so fast it made her dizzy. The news stories, the new building at SFIT, the front pages of the newspapers stacked on her kitchen table reading ‘UNIVERSITY STUDENT DEAD IN EXPLOSION’. This was Tadashi Hamada. The Tadashi Hamada who had died in the fire was now in cryosleep in her basement.


	3. Waking Up

Abigail reeled, her mind stumbling over incomplete thoughts faster than light. _How could he…? Why here…? Really alive…?_ She couldn’t make sense of it. Everything she had heard, every story she had read had told her that Tadashi had died in the fire her father had started, yet here he was, sleeping peacefully in front of her. It was surreal and reality started feeling like a dream.

Finally her mind slowed down to one thought. _There is no way he could be here._ Reaching for her phone she dialled the paramedics and wondered how she would even begin to explain this to the operator.

“911 what is your emergency?” The tinny voice of the operator sounded over her phone.

“I’ve just come home from the hospital,” Abigail began then stopped short still wondering what to say.

“Is everything alright ma’am? Are you injured?” The operator responded.

“No. No I’m alright," she hesitated a moment longer. "I’m in my father’s lab and I just found a man in cryosleep down here.” Abigail couldn’t bring herself to say the name.

“Okay ma’am. Do you know how long he’s been in cryosleep for?”

“I think a few months?” Abigail tried to remember what day the fire at SFIT had happened.

“I’ll send over paramedics and the police ma’am, just stay calm. I'll need to ask you a few more questions if that's alright?”

“Yes, yes that’s okay." Abigail answered as she looked back down at Tadashi.

As she answered the operator's questions, she wondered if she should get Tadashi out of cryosleep herself or wait for the paramedics. She knew how to of course. A degree in astrophysics, growing up with her father, and working with Krei Tech had given her the ability to do a lot of things. Getting him out of cryosleep wasn’t the problem, it was what would happen afterward. Would he still think he was in the fire? Would he be injured?

Abigail decided not to risk it and waited for the paramedics. The time on her watch slowly ticked by. Thirty seconds, a minute, two minutes. She could hear the sirens wailing in the distance and Abigail felt a sense of calm wash over her. The paramedics would be here soon. Everything would be okay, and more importantly, Tadashi would be okay.

A knock and the door opening startled her from her thoughts. She hung up the phone and rushed up the stairs, finding two paramedics and a police officer coming in her door.

“Can you show us where he is ma’am?” The police officer spoke in a courteous tone.

“Yes, he’s in the basement,”

\-----------------

Tadashi woke up to four strangers standing over him. He looked up at the faces and felt trapped. He couldn’t move his arms and legs much and he couldn’t fully sit up. He felt cold and he felt like he had missed something important. Tadashi closed his eyes and memories flashed behind his eyelids like a movie on fast forward. He remembered heat, unbearable heat and he remembered his brother begging him not to go. He remembered a flash of white, then dark, then the next thing he knew he was staring up at fluorescent bulbs with four concerned strangers standing over him and a chill under his skin.

"Can you hear me sir?" One of the faces asked. He looked like a doctor, no, a paramedic.

"Y-yeah," Tadashi's voice was gravelly like he hadn't used it in weeks. His throat and mouth felt like he had swallowed a ball of cotton.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Tadashi Hamada," Tadashi blinked, trying to make sense of what was happening.

The police officer froze and stared at Tadashi. She frowned at him and Tadashi wondered if he had said something wrong. Had he done something wrong?

"Okay Tadashi you're going to be okay. Let's get you out of there," the paramedic interrupted.

"Where am I?" Tadashi blurted as the paramedics began working on taking apart the machine he was in.

The woman he had seen before with soft brown hair tied in a ponytail and pretty blue eyes appeared over him.

"Hi Tadashi, my name is Abigail. You're in my basement, I found you in cryosleep down here but I'm sorry to say I don't know how you got here." Abigail's voice was kind and she seemed to be trying to comfort him.

Tadashi closed his eyes and remembered what he had done. After Hiro had gotten his admission to SFIT, the showcase building had been set on fire. Then Tadashi had stupidly run inside to save his professor.

He had left Hiro behind. He should be dead.

Tadashi felt nauseous. How long had he been asleep? His family thought he was dead, Hiro thought he was dead. _Oh God_ he thought.

Tadashi tried sitting up.

"Whoa whoa, slow down Tadashi," the paramedic warned. "You've just woken up, you're going to be disoriented."

"I have to... I have to call my family. I have to see my brother." Tadashi tried to get up again.

"His blood pressure and heart rate are increasing," reported the other paramedic.

The first paramedic looked back to Tadashi. Recognizing his panic, he tried to calm him down.

"Listen Tadashi, I need you to take deep breaths. Everything is going to be fine. There will be time later to call your family, but right now we need to get you out of the cryotube and to the hospital."

Tadashi did as he was told. Breathing in slowly he tried to relax and not think about his family for the moment. _They'll be fine for another day_ he told himself.

Finally the paramedics got him out of the cryotube and onto a stretcher. With his body free, Tadashi instantly felt better. The claustrophobic feeling had left and he felt much calmer. The paramedics secured him to the stretcher and started carrying him out. Soon he would be in the hospital and then he would be okay and then he could see Hiro again.

_I hope he's doing alright..._

\------------------

Hiro sat in his lab at SFIT spinning idly in his chair. With nothing to do and no projects to catch up on Hiro closed his eyes and drifted into his thoughts.

Outside the window he could hear people talking and cars driving in the distance. It was a quiet day. Peaceful. Hiro couldn't remember the last time he had felt so relaxed.

From below a voice called up to him. "Hey knucklehead! I hope you aren't making a mess of my workspace!"

Hiro's head snapped up. _No_ he thought. _There's no way, it couldn't be._ But Hiro knew that voice anywhere, knew it like his favourite song. Hiro rushed to the window and looked out. Tadashi stood on the sidewalk waving and smiling up at him.

Hiro couldn't believe it. His brother was here, he was okay. He looked unharmed though it was hard to tell from the window. Hiro’s mouth stretched into a grin. Tadashi _was_ here and now the Hamada Brothers could change the world together again.

Suddenly, Tadashi's smile faded as he looked past Hiro, into the room behind him. Hiro turned around and faced a wall of smoke so thick it looked solid.

Tadashi called out to Hiro just as the building's fire alarms started screaming. "Hang on Hiro, I'm coming to get you!"

"No, no!" Hiro turned back to the window and tried desperately to get Tadashi to stay out on the sidewalk, "I'm okay I can get out myself!"

Hiro blinked and suddenly he was standing outside on the sidewalk watching Tadashi run into the smoking building. Flames burst through the windows and licked through the roof of the building.

"Tadashi, Tadashi I'm here! Don't go in there!" Hiro pleaded for Tadashi to stop but he couldn't hear him. The louder Hiro tried to scream, the quieter his voice seemed to become.

Tadashi ran in to the building and Hiro took a step to follow him. Then with a bright flash and the sound of the building crumbling, Hiro was thrown back onto the sidewalk by the shockwave of the explosion.

_No, Tadashi._

**_"TADASHI!"_ **

Hiro was suffocating, it felt like Wasabi had parked his car on his chest. He struggled to move, to pull his arms up. The building flickered in and out of focus. Dark, light, dark, light. Hiro was sweating, his heart was pounding.

Hiro gasped and opened his eyes. Looking up, he saw Baymax leaning over him and watching him carefully. Hiro sat up and shuddered with the memory of the nightmare.

Baymax tilted his head, "I heard a sound of distress. Are you okay Hiro?"

"I'm fine Baymax you can go back to your charging station,"

Baymax was quiet as he regarded Hiro. "I will scan you now," he declared.

"No it's-”

"Scan complete," Hiro gave up and slouched in his bed. "My sensors indicate an elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, an increase in blood glucose, and an increase in neutrophilic leukocyte production."

At this, Hiro stared at Baymax in confusion.

"Which means...?" He prompted.

"This indicates that you are afraid. What is wrong Hiro?"

Baymax leaned back and inspected the darkened room.

"My sensors do not detect any immediate danger here. There is nothing to be frightened of." Baymax finished his scan and turned back to Hiro.

"It was just a nightmare Baymax. I'm okay, really." Hiro wasn't actually okay but he still didn't know how to tell Baymax that. His hands still shook and there was a cold fist wrapped around his heart. He was wide awake and he wouldn't be back to sleep for a while.

"A nightmare is a distressing dream that often causes a severe emotional response including fear, horror, anxiety, distress, and sadness. Treatment includes discussing the dream, physical reassurance, or drinking water. Would you like a hug Hiro?"

Hiro started to protest until Baymax moved toward him and cradled him in his squishy arms. Baymax turned on the warming unit in his body and suddenly Hiro felt more relaxed. Being close to Baymax made him feel safe. He didn't have to worry about any nightmares when he knew Baymax would be here when he woke up shaking and sweating. His heart slowed down and the dream started to slip away from him.

"It appears that your heart-rate and blood pressure have returned to normal," Baymax reported softly, "Are you satisfied with your care Hiro?"

Hiro looked up and sleepily considered Baymax.

"Yeah. Thanks," He murmured, "I'm satisfied with my care."

Baymax waddled carefully back to Hiro's bed and placed him gently on top of the mattress. Hiro's eyes had slipped closed and he burrowed under the covers, mourning the loss of heat from Baymax's body.

"Good night Hiro," Baymax moved back to his charging station.

"Good night Baymax,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed it. Exams are exhausting me but the next chapter will be up on time I promise just bear with me as a slowly die from all the studying I have to do.


	4. Trusting Technology

In the inky midnight darkness a man slipped out an unremarkable door and into the street. In the anonymity of a dark hoodie and nondescript pants, the few passersby out that late at night paid no attention to him. The stocky figure slunk down the street, shoulders hunched and head down. He hugged the buildings lining the street and stayed away from the glow of the streetlights and bright neon lights from shop windows and billboards.

Anyone paying attention would notice a lock of greasy hair peeking out from under his hood and unnaturally pale skin hidden by the shadows. His pocket bulged with an indiscernible object hidden in cloth and under his hands.

Sliding between two buildings at the end of the street the man pulled something out of his pocket. Light glinted off two metal rods about three inches long. A lock pick. A bit outdated, but useful when people trusted technology too much and didn’t bother to protect their locks against something as simple as a lock pick.

The man glanced left, right, then stood up and pressed himself beside a service door. Working with deft hands, it wasn’t long before the man had the door unlocked. He slowly pushed it open and stepped into the building. Cautiously looking around, he located the hallway he needed to take, knowing exactly where he needed to go. He wasn’t stupid, he had planned this robbery beforehand, had studied floor plans of the building, knew his exits, and knew when the night security would come around. He had exactly 15 minutes to disable any alarms and cameras, then get to the bank vaults and get home.

Stealing down the corridor, the man pulled out a cloth and covered it in a sweet smelling chemical. Coming to a door at the end of the hall he gently turned the handle and the door opened with a small click. The security guard sitting at the desk was dozing, just as the man expected him to be. The man approached the guard and covered his nose and mouth with the cloth. The security guard blinked his eyes open for a moment, then fell unconscious. The man was careful to make sure the guard didn’t see him.

Once the security guard was out cold, the man pulled a keyboard toward him and started to work quickly. He knew his plan, he knew what he had to do. Using the computer terminal, he unlocked the vault then set it to lock again in ten minutes. Pulling another object out of his pocket, he unwrapped the cloth it was in, revealing a dvd case. It had blank security footage recorded onto it and he replaced the bank's security feeds with his own images of empty hallways. Finishing up, he authorized all of his actions to cover his trail.

The man was set, he just had to walk to the vault, grab the money, and walk home. No one would find out until tomorrow morning when the bank opened the vault to do their morning checks.

The man wanted to laugh it had been so easy.

People really needed to trust each other less.

\-----------------

Hiro blinked awake and squinted in the cheery morning light spilling through his window. He remembered his nightmare from the night before and shuddered. It had been a while since he’d had a nightmare that bad, but he didn't think he would ever truly move on from watching his brother, his hero, die in the fire.

Downstairs, dishes clinked in the café and gentle voices drifted upstairs creating a comfortable peace in Hiro’s room. It was just another regular Saturday morning in the Hamada household.

Hiro stumbled out of bed and untwisted himself from his sheets. Pulling on a shirt and pants, he wandered down the stairs to the kitchen for something to eat. Hiro pulled the fridge open and turned on the television just outside the kitchen.

_"-robbery has occurred at the Community Trust Bank on Skyline Boulevard. Police are unsure of a specific time of the robbery as no evidence was left behind. Approximately $10,000 was taken-"_

The news reporter droned on, but Hiro's mind was elsewhere. A free Saturday stretched out before him and Hiro planned to put it to good use. He had plans to upgrade Baymax, and supercapacitor batteries were on the top of that list.

With a glass of milk in hand, Hiro dashed up the steps back to his room to wake up Baymax.

Hiro activated Baymax with an affectionate "Ow," and with a gentle _whoosh_ Baymax began to inflate.

"Good morning Hiro, how are you today?" Baymax was always inquiring after Hiro's health. He suspected that Tadashi had programmed him to take special care of Hiro, should he need it.

"I'm fine Baymax, come on, you and I have some upgrades to make." Hiro moved back towards the stairs and Baymax turned to follow.

"Will these upgrades improve my health care capabilities?" Baymax tilted his head.

"Sorta," Hiro grinned and thought of all the great things he could do with Baymax. Not only was he planning to replace his current batteries with newer, longer lasting ones, he wanted to find and program any medical procedures Tadashi had missed, and make him a better _crime-fighting_ companion.

On his way towards the garage, the phone rang in the kitchen.

"Hello?" Hiro picked up the phone.

"Hello I'm looking for Cass Hamada, is she home?" The man on the other end of the phone sounded serious. Whatever he wanted Aunt Cass for, it sounded urgent and important.

"Uh yeah, hang on." Hiro slipped down into the café to pass the phone off to his aunt. He wondered who was calling and what they wanted. It wasn't often they got unknown callers on their home line like this and he was worried it would be bad news.

Hiro said good morning to Aunt Cass and handed her the phone. The call nagged at the back of his mind but he decided not to worry about it and focus on the upgrades instead. He knew what he wanted to do with Baymax but now he had to do the boring bit of inventing. Researching.

Hiro's time in class at SFIT had taught him a lot more about robotics and programming, but it also taught him that with a bit of research he could do a whole lot more. Tadashi had built Baymax no problem but to program the robot, he’d had to do a lot of research on medical procedures beforehand. Tadashi was brilliant, but he hadn’t known everything and he had had to rely on research to help him in areas he wasn’t familiar with.

Now it was Hiro's turn. His nightmare had brought back memories of Tadashi that ate at the back of his mind. He had wanted to continue his brother's work, but every time he had tried, he ended up longing for Tadashi’s presence and unable to focus and continue his work.

He was determined to get it this time though. This time he would track down all the medical procedures Tadashi had forgotten to program and write them in himself no matter what it took.

Baymax shuffled towards the computer and Hiro pushed off the ground and rolled over to Baymax.

"Alright Baymax, it's upgrade time," Baymax regarded Hiro carefully, "What medical programs did Tadashi program you with?"

Baymax seemed to consider Hiro's question carefully before answering, "Tadashi programmed a multitude of programs into my system. This includes common illnesses, and rare illnesses as well as small injuries and life threatening injuries. I also have information on mental illnesses, proper nutrition, and normal bodily functions."

Hiro blinked, "Unbelievable. Tadashi was pretty thorough on your programming huh buddy?" He decided to test this. "Baymax, do you have information on… the flu?"

"Yes," Baymax answered simply.

"How about pneumonia? Leukemia? Depression?"

"Yes, I have information on all of those conditions. Do you have any concerns about them Hiro?"

"No I’m good, thanks. You're programmed pretty well aren't you?" Hiro smiled up at Baymax, patted his belly, and rolled back to his computer.

Baymax followed and leaned over Hiro’s shoulder as Hiro started researching obscure medical conditions.

Hiro was intent on his research so he didn't notice when Aunt Cass opened the door and popped her head into the garage.

"Hiro?"

Hiro looked up as Baymax straightened and turned fully towards Aunt Cass. She didn't look right. She looked upset and jumpy and her skin was unusually pale. Hiro instantly started worrying and wondering what was upsetting her so much. He had never seen his aunt so affected by something. Not since Tadashi's death.

"Aunt Cass? Is everything alright?"

"Yes, yes. I'm going out for a while, Hiro and I have to close the cafe. I'll be back in a few hours." Cass nervously tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Okay Aunt Cass," she started to move away and close the door.

"Wait, wait!" Hiro called out, already standing up, and Aunt Cass looked back in.

"Last hug," Hiro tried a smile and hugged her tightly.

Cass smiled in return and ruffled his hair, then turned and closed the door behind her. Hiro was troubled over her behavior. Aunt Cass seemed distracted and distant, and Saturdays were some of the best days for business in the café. It wasn't often she closed it down unless something serious was happening.

Hiro turned to look at Baymax. "Please tell me you scanned her,"

"My scan showed increased levels of cortisol and serotonin in her brain. She also showed signs of an elevated heart rate and an unsteady stature. This indicates stress and anxiety as well as the possibility of fear." Baymax finished the diagnosis and watched Hiro for his next actions.

"I knew I could count on you buddy,"

Hiro wondered what could have upset Aunt Cass so much. She was usually energetic and a bit excitable so seeing her so subdued made Hiro feel like the world was about to end. Even after Tadashi’s death, she had readily bounced back into life as normal, and tried her best to bring Hiro with her.

Aunt Cass had already left though so Hiro had no choice but to wait for her to return. It was beyond frustrating waiting to see if bad news had come. Hiro was going to break something if he didn't find out soon.

"Hiro, your cortisol levels are increasing. Why are you stressed?" Hiro had noticed over the past few weeks that Baymax was getting better at talking to people and asking questions, rather than simply diagnosing them and offering treatment. He was becoming more human-like every day.

“I’m okay Baymax. I’m just worried about aunt Cass is all.”

Baymax moved towards Hiro and gently wrapped him in his arms, “Do not worry Hiro. Your aunt will be okay,”

“Thanks bud,” Hiro shrugged out of Baymax’s arms and decided to throw himself into inventing. “Alright, back to work. Let’s upgrade your batteries first.”

\------------------

Cass Hamada couldn't think straight, practically couldn't see straight. Not with the phone call she had just received. _I should definitely not be driving_ she thought to herself.

Her day had started out pretty well. The café was opened without a hitch, regular, and some new customers were coming in, everything was shaping up to be a good day.

Then Hiro came down with the phone in his hand and Aunt Cass's world was turned on its head.

She remembered the man's voice like it was her own.

"Cass Hamada?" The man had had a polite voice but it had a rasp to it like he spent most of his day talking.

"Yes?" She had responded.

"Do you have any relation to a Tadashi Hamada?"

"...yes. He is -was my nephew," she caught herself.

"I see," rasped the man. "I have to inform you ma'am that we have a Tadashi Hamada in San Fransokyo General Hospital and this was the number he gave to contact his family."

Aunt Cass didn't know what to think. Was this a trick? Tadashi had died months ago, how could he just turn up alive now? She dared to hope all the same.

"Can I see him?"

"Yes ma'am, if you come to the hospital and give your name you will be allowed in to see him."

"Thank you," Aunt Cass hung up the phone and leaned against the counter thinking. If Tadashi really was alive, what would she tell Hiro? He would be devastated and angry. But if he wasn't alive and she let Hiro have that hope, he would still be devastated either way. She brought her fingers to her lips and started chewing on her nails.

Cass decided to drive to the hospital, find out the truth for herself, and then explain to Hiro what was going on. She couldn't make him experience that grief all over again.

So now here she was, driving even though she probably shouldn't be, through the streets of San Fransokyo towards the hospital. If Tadashi really was alive, would he still be the same as before?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew all done! Currently I am crying over finals (math is BRUTAL) but the next chapter will be up on Monday I promise. Happy reading!


	5. Back from the Dead

Tadashi lay in the hospital waiting. He hated waiting. Waiting involved not doing anything and if there was one thing Tadashi hated, it was not doing anything. He would rather be working, figuring things out, making things come faster. So waiting for Aunt Cass to arrive was driving him up the wall.

He wished he could go home. Cryosleep didn’t really cause any harm to a person. When you wake up from cryosleep you only feel disoriented and cold, maybe a little stiff. A couple of minutes and a hot tea and you were back on your feet, ready to go. Spending a few days in the hospital _really_ wasn’t necessary.

Even contacting Aunt Cass had taken way longer than it should have. After arriving in the ER, a steady procession of doctors had been in to see Tadashi. They had taken samples and done tests, asked him how he was feeling, it was all pointless. Tadashi felt like he had just woken up from a nap.

In the end, a police officer had come in, he thought she was the same one from Abigail's house but he couldn't be sure. She asked him questions too, but more about how he survived and what he remembered from the fire. He didn't know much, he wished he could tell her more.

Eventually, another doctor walked in.

“Mr. Hamada? You have a visitor,” He nodded to Tadashi then turned and allowed Aunt Cass into the room.

As soon as Tadashi saw his aunt, words left him. While he was waiting he had tried coming up with things to say to her when she got there. An explanation, an excuse, something, _anything,_ but as soon as she showed up, he forgot everything he was going to say.

"Tadashi?" Aunt Cass looked like she didn't believe Tadashi was actually there.

"You didn’t close the café on a Saturday did you?" It was the only thing he could think of to say. Their best business day and she had closed the café for him. Tadashi felt terrible.

Aunt Cass moved to Tadashi's bed and sank into the chair beside him, gently shaking her head.

"It doesn’t matter,” She insisted. “Are you okay? Are you injured?"

Tadashi noticed Aunt Cass's voice shook with unshed tears as she fussed over him, looking for injuries.

"I'm fine Aunt Cass," Tadashi was lucky, he had escaped with barely a scratch, but he knew he was the cause of a lot of stress for his aunt. He was waiting for her to start her tirade on how stupid he was and how much he had scared her, but it never came.

Aunt Cass quietly stared at Tadashi until she asked, "Why did you go into the fire Tadashi?"

Of everything Tadashi had expected her to say, this was on the bottom of the list. He struggled to come up with an acceptable response and he looked down at his hands, feeling too ashamed to meet her eyes.

"Professor Callaghan was in there. Someone had to help." He decided on eventually.

Tadashi peeked up at Cass and she seemed to accept his answer. She nodded and reached for his hand.

"How am I going to explain to Hiro," she moaned. "What were you _thinking?_ What will the _neighbours_ think when they see you walking around the house? Poor old Mrs. Edmunds will have a heart attack if she sees you risen from the dead!"

There it was. This was more like the Aunt Cass Tadashi knew. He felt better knowing his Aunt was still in there somewhere and hadn’t completely changed. He could deal with her chiding him for his foolish mistakes.

"I'm sorry Aunt Cass," Tadashi averted his eyes again. “Where is Hiro though? Is he okay?”

Tadashi’s thoughts turned to Hiro again. Why wasn’t he here? Was he okay? Tadashi felt so behind in everything and he wanted even more to just go home. He wanted to see his brother, he wanted to sleep in his own bed, go back to his own school. His throat tightened with the regret of all he had missed.

"He’s fine right now, but Tadashi you didn't see how hard he took losing you. He didn't eat, he never went out, and he barely even slept," Aunt Cass's voice took on a frenzied edge. “I didn’t want to give him the hope of seeing you, only to have him lose you all over again.”

Tadashi closed his eyes. He understood what she meant. If Hiro had taken his death that hard, how would he even begin to deal with false hope and losing him a second time?

"Is he better? Is he eating?" Tadashi didn’t think he could worry over Hiro any more than he already did but apparently he was wrong. Hiro was already so thin, what would malnourishment do to him? If he wasn't sleeping, how could he go to school?

"He's doing a lot better now," Aunt Cass began. "Your Baymax took care of him and your SFIT friends made sure he was okay."

"Thank God," Tadashi tilted his head back onto his pillow. He didn't want to think of the pain he had put Hiro through.

“He’s going to school now too. He started the spring semester late, but he’s all caught up now. I’m so proud of him.” Aunt Cass got a wistful look in her eyes, thinking about how well Hiro was doing in university.

Tadashi blew out a breath, happy his brother was doing well in school. He deserved to go there, a brilliant mind like his shouldn’t be wasted sitting at home or worse, going back to bot fighting.

"Do you need anything? Are you okay here?"

"I'm fine Aunt Cass, just go take care of Hiro. And reopen the café, you didn’t have to close it for me."

Aunt Cass nodded but seemed reluctant to leave.

"Go Aunt Cass, I'll be home in a few days. You need to talk to Hiro,” Tadashi persisted

Aunt Cass started towards the door. Just before she left she turned back towards Tadashi, "Don't think you've heard the end of this mister," she warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Tadashi smiled. Aunt Cass would be okay. She was surprisingly resilient. He just had to worry about Hiro now who would have a lot more trouble accepting that Tadashi was still here.

\---------------

Hiro lay in his bed staring at the ceiling. He had tried to get back to work after Aunt Cass had left but he couldn’t focus on any of his ideas. He'd ended up changing Baymax's batteries - which was a story for another day - but after that he couldn't concentrate. Every time he tried to drag his attention back to his research, he would think of Aunt Cass trembling in the doorway and he would get distracted all over again.

Now, staring at the ceiling, he couldn't get his mind off what Aunt Cass was doing no matter how hard he tried to think of something else. He had no idea what could have pulled her away like that and he hoped she would be back soon so she could put his mind at ease.

Hiro looked over to Baymax who was as quiet as a ghost in the corner of the room. When Hiro had first come up the stairs, Baymax had noticed his suffering and was peppering him with questions.

"I notice you are distressed Hiro, can I help? Do you need a hug Hiro? Sleeping is often helpful in improving temporary negative emotions," Baymax had rattled off more questions than Hiro could manage. Exasperated, he gave up trying to answer Baymax and Hiro told him that he could help by keeping quiet. So now Baymax stood in the corner, watching over Hiro while Hiro curled up on his bed and stared at the ceiling anxiously.

After what seemed like entire geological eras, the bell over the cafe door jingled cheerily, unaware of the emotions enveloping the house, signifying Aunt Cass's return.

Hiro sat up and immediately Baymax was on alert and moving towards Hiro.

"Hiro?" Aunt Cass called up the stairs. She sounded better than before she had left. More like herself. Her voice wasn't small and shaky anymore.

"I'm here Aunt Cass!" Hiro got up to go downstairs. "Wait here Baymax," he instructed. "I'll be back soon."

Hiro didn’t need Baymax downstairs this time. Having the robot scanning him and his aunt, then listing off symptoms of happiness, or sadness, or anger, or whatever would happen downstairs was not something Hiro wanted to deal with at the moment. Baymax meant well, but sometimes it just needed to be him and Aunt Cass.

Baymax just tilted his head and watched Hiro creep down the stairs. There was tension in the air that seemed to blanket the whole house. Hiro felt that if he stepped too hard, he would break something and the walls would come crashing down around him. It was suffocating and Hiro hoped that Aunt Cass could tell him that everything was okay.

"Can you come her-" Aunt Cass turned around to find Hiro standing behind her. "Oh you're already here," she finished, quieter.

Hiro forced a smile and tried to look like he wasn't bothered by whatever it was Aunt Cass was going to say. He restlessly rocked onto his toes and fisted his hands in his pockets.

"Is everything alright?" He asked, pretending to be indifferent.

"I need to talk to you about something important," Hiro's stomach dropped to his feet, like he was freefalling through the air.

"Come sit down," Aunt Cass moved towards the kitchen table with two teacups she had pulled out of nowhere. It was an old habit of hers, making tea whenever something important needed saying. She had done it when Hiro and Tadashi had first moved in with her, and she had done it every time something was changing and was going to affect all three of them.

Hiro sat down in front of his tea and looked at Aunt Cass expectantly. Possibilities whirled through his mind like a hurricane, flying by so fast he couldn't hang on to one for more than a few seconds. Hiro couldn’t grasp a thought to force out of his mouth so he waited for his Aunt to start the conversation.

Evidently, she was having trouble forming her thoughts too because she stared at Hiro over her tea until Hiro began to feel uncomfortable. He shifted under her gaze and took a sip of his tea.

 Breaking out of her trance, Aunt Cass finally began.

"Tadashi…" she started then didn't say anything else.

"Okay-y," hearing his brother's name at least gave Hiro a thought to focus on. "What about him?"

Aunt Cass looked like she was considering her life decisions up to this point. Hiro had never seen her look so indecisive. She took another sip of her tea and the cup rattled in her shaking hands.

"The phone call I got today, it was from the hospital," she tried again. Aunt Cass appeared to have found her footing and she continued on in a rush. "The doctor on the phone told me Tadashi was there, but of course I didn't believe him, so I went over to find out if he was telling the truth and your brother was there, and he's going to be home in a few days and-"

"Tadashi’s alive?" Hiro interrupted. His mind had latched on to only that. Tadashi was alive. But how? Hiro had watched him run into the fire, he had seen the explosion, felt the heat like jumping into the sun. There was no way Tadashi could have survived. He stared in disbelief.

"You said, Tadashi's alive?" He repeated faintly.

Aunt Cass seemed to compose herself and slow down. "Yes Hiro. I don't know what else to tell you. He really is here, I saw him myself."

Aunt Cass tried to reach for Hiro’s hand but he stood up from the table before she could reach him. He couldn't think properly anymore. Incomplete thoughts skittered through his head. Tadashi was alive and all his grieving had been pointless. And now Tadashi was here and he could have just saved him all the trouble by _not_ running into that fire.

Suddenly, Aunt Cass was pulling Hiro into her arms. She rested her head on top of his and whispered softly into his hair, "I'm sorry honey."

Hiro felt tears sting behind his eyes.

"I just want to go upstairs," he responded. The shock of learning his brother was alive had left him wanting to be alone to sort through his thoughts.

Aunt Cass pulled back but kept her hands on Hiro's shoulders. She searched his face before she seemed to decide she was satisfied and let him go.

"I'll bring dinner up for you later sweetie," Aunt Cass watched Hiro as he slowly dragged himself up the stairs.

"Thanks Aunt Cass,"

Tadashi was alive and coming home. A part of Hiro couldn't believe it. His brother was here and he would see him again, hear his voice again. The rest of him was angry though. Angry that Tadashi had run into the building, angry at Callaghan for taking his brother away from him, and angry that because of all this he had lost so much time grieving.

Hiro jerked back his covers and threw himself into bed. Covering his head, he let his tears stain his cheeks and his sheets. His shoulders shook as he sobbed into the mattress trying to make sense of what was going on. It wasn't everyday your brother returned from the dead.

A squeaking and whirring noise moved towards Hiro.

"Hiro? What is the matter?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all folks! I was worried I wouldn't get this done because exams are EVIL but here it is all done. Hope you enjoyed!


	6. Action Plan

In the outskirts of San Fransokyo, a soft blue glow shone in the windows of a small apartment. There was nothing special about it on the surface, it wasn’t unusual to find someone up late with all the technology readily available in the city. What was special about this particular apartment was the man who sat inside.

The hooded man sat in front of a computer screen, intent on his work.  He had a map of San Fransokyo displayed on the monitor and he was blocking out areas of the city. As he worked, parts of the city would light up, casting a blood red glow around the apartment. The eerie blue and soft red combined gave an aura of evil at work.

Swivelling in his chair, the man swiped the map into a 3D display board and carefully studied it. Planning routes and destinations, he carefully pulled together the next step in his plan. Shutting down the map, the man turned and moved into the depths of his apartment. He passed by his safe, where he had stored the $10,000 he had stolen two nights before, and moved out onto his fire escape. The money was there to fund his project that stood ready behind his home.

Glinting under the moonlight, hundreds of robots stood frozen behind the fence across the tiny alley. He snapped his fingers and the robots turned towards him in unison. Red pinpricks of light glowed unnaturally in the darkness and waited patiently for the man to give them a command.

The man grinned. Tomorrow was the day he would put his plans into action. Tomorrow, he would fix this lawless city, and take out all the criminals that ran free. His robots were ready, he was ready. Everything was in place and all he had to do was snap his fingers.

It was almost embarrassing that no one had caught on yet.

\---------------

Honey Lemon fidgeted on the couch in the Hamadas' living room with the rest of her friends. She had been worried when she got a call from Cass Hamada telling her to come over immediately.

Now though, she just felt numb. After everyone had shown up, Cass had wasted no time in informing them that somehow Tadashi was alive and he was coming home from the hospital.

Honey Lemon was trying to figure how he could have survived. The explosion was violent and she had felt the heat from out in the parking lot. Everything told her Tadashi should have died, but here she was at Tadashi's house finding out he was coming home today like he'd never left.

Hiro was nowhere to be seen. Honey was worried about him. She remembered how upset he was over losing Tadashi, he had made more than a few reckless decisions in grief and now his brother was coming back. He probably wouldn't be taking this too well.

Standing up she started towards the stairs to Hiro's room. Her friends looked up from their quiet conversations and looked at her curiously. Honey Lemon glanced up at the stairs and everyone seemed to understand. Hiro needed someone, he was all alone upstairs.

Honey clacked up the stairs in her heels wondering how she would even begin to talk to Hiro. He was volatile when he was upset and she hoped he wouldn't push her away.

Coming to the top of the stairs she stopped and scanned the room. Hiro couldn't be seen but she could hear his soft sniffles coming from Tadashi's side of the room.

"Hiro?" She shuffled through the room and around the corner. Hiro was curled up beside Baymax against Tadashi's bookshelves. He looked so tiny curled up like that and it was unsettling to see. She was used to seeing Hiro excited and smiling, leading their little team with confidence. He had been fitting in so well she had almost forgotten that he was still only a kid.

She rested her hand against Hiro's shoulder and he shifted away from her touch.

"Hiro..." She pleaded.

Baymax looked up at her and reported on Hiro's condition. "Hiro's blood pressure and serotonin levels are elevated. He is distressed and upset.”

Honey Lemon looked back down at Hiro and tried to comfort him. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and Hiro deflated against her side. He shivered against her, his eyes unfocused and staring at nothing.

“Don’t push me away Hiro,” she prodded gently. “I understand why you’re so upset.”

Hiro froze and slowly looked up at her. His eyes focused and he took another shuddering breath before speaking.

“How could you know?” He began. “I mean sure he’s your friend and you lost him too but he was my brother. He _left_ me and ran into that fire then for months I had to live without him. I never thought I would see him again and now here he is coming home! He _left_ me, Honey, he chose Callaghan over me, how am I going to live with him now, knowing that?” Hiro’s voice broke on the last word. He crumpled back into her arms and his tears spilled down his cheeks and onto Honey’s shirt.

Honey was grateful that at least he was talking to her. The team had gotten even closer in the days after the incident at Krei Tech. They had worked together to keep San Fransokyo safe every day, and they had come a long way together from when they started out. They were inseparable, and she was grateful that Hiro trusted her enough to share his thoughts.

“Hiro… it’s not like that, I promise. You never heard how much Tadashi talked about you in the lab. I’ve known him for a long time Hiro, he would never choose anyone over you.” Honey was sure of this. Tadashi _adored_ Hiro and whatever his reasons for running into the fire, they were not because he had chosen Callaghan over Hiro.

“How do you know that? How could you know what he was thinking?” Hiro sounded like he desperately wanted to believe her. Honey looked down at him. His shining eyes were desperate for an answer, but she didn’t have one. Only Tadashi had that answer.

“I don’t know what he was thinking, Hiro, but he loved you and he wouldn’t leave you without good reason. You should ask him yourself, when he comes home.”

Hiro shifted in her embrace and looked down. “I don’t want to talk to him when he gets here,”

“Oh Hiro,” Honey Lemon felt her heart clench. Hiro _had_ to talk to Tadashi, it was the only way he would get his answers and begin to forgive Tadashi. She saw the problem coming, and she decided then and there that she had to fix it, before it even began.

“You have to talk to Tadashi, Hiro. He’s coming home today, he’s getting a second chance with his friends and family, don’t you want to be a part of that too?” Hiro wouldn’t look at her and Honey Lemon had to think of something else to say, before she lost him.

“Listen Hiro, I have a story to tell,” Hiro glanced up at her curiously, she had his attention again. “When I was little, I had a friend that I got in a terrible argument with. Looking back on it, it was something silly, but we didn’t talk to each other for months. We would avoid each other at school, we wouldn’t have lunch together, and we barely even looked at each other. Then one day she wasn’t at school. And she wasn’t there the next day or the next. I found that I missed her, and that I shouldn’t have stopped talking to her. Later I found out she had moved and changed schools.”

Hiro had turned fully towards Honey Lemon now. “And then what happened?” His coffee coloured eyes studied her carefully, seeking the end of her story.

“Then I had to move about a year later, and chance would have it we both moved to San Fransokyo. We went to the same school again.”

“Did you talk again?” Hiro asked.

“We did, we were given a second chance and we took it and now we’re still best friends. Do you know who she was?”

“Who?” Hiro looked like he was about to burst with curiosity.

“Gogo,” Honey Lemon smiled.

“Shut up,” Hiro couldn’t believe her. “I thought you guys only met when you started at SFIT."

Honey laughed. "There's a lot of stuff you don't know yet," she told him. "But my point is, you can't give up this second chance. If you give it up, you'll never know how much you're missing."

Hiro looked down and sat quietly for a few moments. Honey Lemon watched him and patiently waited for a response. She knew things like this took time, Hiro would still probably have a lot to work through.

Finally he looked up at her and gave a hesitant smile. 

"Alright," he agreed. "I'll talk to him."

"Oh Hiro!" Honey cheered, "I knew you would understand."

Honey pulled Hiro into her arms for a last squeeze, then got up to leave him to his thoughts. She knew he would need more time to think, and Baymax would be there for him if he needed it.

Honey smiled to herself as she descended the stairs.

\---------------

Hiro listened to Honey click down the stairs and turned back towards Baymax.

"Well, what do you think about all this big guy?"

"Tadashi is here," it was almost a question.

"Yeah, Tadashi is here, what are we gonna do?" Hiro settled himself against Baymax's squishy body and looked at Tadashi's bed. His hat was back on his bed, he had brought it home with him a few days ago and when he had learned that Tadashi was coming home, Hiro had placed the hat back on his bed. Along with Baymax and his program chip, Hiro felt like the hat was the last piece of Tadashi he had left. His heart clenched as he stared at it.

“Hiro, why did you not want to talk to Tadashi?” Baymax inquired.

Hiro took a deep breath and considered Baymax’s question. Why didn’t he want to talk to Tadashi? He had desperately missed his brother for the last few months but now he didn’t have to miss him anymore.

Hiro was angry though. Angry at Tadashi, at Callaghan, but especially at himself. Angry for staying at home for so long, and almost going back to bot fighting, and almost becoming a murderer. Baymax had been right, that wasn’t what Tadashi would have wanted and in reality, he was ashamed to talk to Tadashi. He was worried Tadashi would see right through him to all the bad things he had done.

Honey Lemon was right though. And he knew she was right even if he didn’t want her to be. If he had any hope of feeling better he would have to talk to Tadashi.

"I’m scared he won’t like me anymore,” Hiro whispered.

Baymax sat quietly for a few moments.

“Tadashi will always love you, Hiro. It is what he has always done.”

Hiro squeezed his eyes shut and curled in closer to Baymax.


	7. A Second Chance

Tadashi watched the buildings flash by as Aunt Cass drove him home. The cool glass of the window pressed against his forehead and relieved the nausea he felt. He wasn't nauseous from the cryosleep no that was all fine now, he was nauseous because now he had to go home and face Hiro.

He was happy to see Hiro of course. Any chance to be with his brother was a chance he wouldn't throw away lightly. He was nervous because he had no idea how Hiro would react to him being alive.

Aunt Cass had told him the news. Hiro hadn't eaten, had barely slept when he had died. And when she told Hiro that Tadashi was alive she said he had gone up to his room for hours and didn't come down. Last time Aunt Cass had seen him, he was curled up beside Baymax and had refused to say anything.

Baymax... Tadashi wondered how he was holding up. Apparently he was still active because he was with Hiro which was good and exactly what Tadashi had wanted. He had designed him with Hiro in mind. He knew Baymax would be able to help a lot of people, but the first Baymax program, that was created for Hiro. Tadashi remembered how Hiro would always get hurt playing when he was little. Cuts, scrapes, and bruises, it would always take so long to get Hiro all fixed up. Baymax was designed to help people as quickly as possible and he was glad they were taking care of each other.

Tadashi had a lot to catch up on. His friends, family, projects, school. He didn't know how he would get it all done. But he knew where to start. He had to start with Hiro.

\---------------

Hiro was still in his room, his _and Tadashi's_ room he would have to get used to again, when he heard the front door open downstairs. The bell happily announced the arrival of Aunt Cass and Tadashi, and now Hiro was starting to feel sick.

Would Tadashi still be himself? What would he say to him? What if the answers Hiro got from Tadashi, weren't the answers he wanted?

Thoughts and questions spun through his head making him dizzy. Downstairs he could hear shuffling and finally, "Tadashiii!" That was Honey Lemon. Hiro lifted the corners of his mouth in a small smile and listened to his friends rush to see Tadashi.

He would have gone down to greet him, he had wanted to. But everyone was here, and he needed to see Tadashi alone. He couldn't face him with all his friends watching. Despite what Honey said, what if Tadashi _had_ chosen Callaghan over him? And what if Tadashi got mad at him? He wouldn't be able to face anyone ever again if Tadashi chewed him out right in front of them all.

Downstairs, Tadashi finally spoke.  Hiro's heart stopped at the sound of his voice. Up until then, everything had felt like an illusion. Everyone had told him Tadashi was here, but it had never actually felt real, and he wasn’t able to really wrap his head around it. Now that Hiro had heard his voice, he seemed to wake up from his dream and _Tadashi was here._

Hiro listened to Tadashi's voice drift up the stairs. He remembered the gentle tones that hadn't changed at all. His brother's soft voice floated around his head, calming him and making him feel safe. It was something familiar that wrapped itself around him like a blanket.

Hiro didn't know how much time had passed. He wasn't paying attention to what anyone was saying downstairs. He only cared for the casual syllables that Tadashi formed, until he noticed, "Where's Hiro?"

The world spun and Hiro almost toppled over even though he was sitting. This was it, Tadashi was going to come upstairs any second now and the illusion that Tadashi was gone would completely vanish.

Tadashi's footsteps resounded heavily on the stairs, pounding in time with Hiro’s heartbeat. Hiro couldn't bring himself to move from his position on the floor. He was stuck in place as if someone had cast a spell on him. He both dreaded and craved the moment he would finally see Tadashi. He could feel his heart beating in his throat and though Baymax studied him carefully, he thankfully kept quiet.

Tadashi's footsteps paused at the top of the stairs and the spell was broken. Hiro shifted away from Baymax and pushed up onto his feet just as Tadashi called, "Hiro?"

Hiro rounded the corner and whispered, "I'm here Tadashi,"

Hiro's throat was tight with unshed tears and it was strange forming Tadashi’s name on his tongue, but surprisingly his voice was steady. He kept his head down but peeked up at his brother through his unkempt bangs. He didn't know where to begin but fortunately, Tadashi started for him.

He took a step towards Hiro and reached towards him.

"Hiro, I'm so, so sorry," Tadashi's voice shook and he sounded as nervous as Hiro felt.

Finally Hiro looked up at Tadashi and looked him in the eye. He looked just as he remembered him, familiar brown eyes meeting Hiro’s matching pair.

"Why did you do it?"  Hiro cut straight to the chase, he didn’t have time for any of the mushy stuff. He had to know, needed an answer more than he had ever needed anything else.

Tadashi hesitated for a moment, and Hiro got more and more nervous as he awaited an answer.

"Someone had to help," Tadashi repeated the last words he had said to Hiro.

Hiro’s shoulders slumped and he glared at Tadashi. He wouldn’t accept that for an answer, he wanted to know more. If Tadashi expected four words to fix all the anger and grief that Hiro felt then Hiro would be quick to squash that idea. The anger bubbled up his throat and he felt the need to hit something. Tadashi happened to be the closest object and Hiro reached up and slapped his cheek causing Tadashi to stumble back a few steps in surprise.

 “How?” his voice cracked and he hated how vulnerable it made him sound. “How could you do this to me?”

Tadashi didn’t say anything and avoided Hiro’s eyes. He pressed his hand against his reddening cheek and looked embarrassed. Hiro froze realizing what he had done and took a step back. If Tadashi hadn’t been mad before, he would definitely be angry now. Fortunately, Hiro wasn’t as strong as Tadashi and the physical damage he had done wasn’t too serious.

“I’m sorry- I didn’t mean-” Hiro ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

He started pacing in agitation as Tadashi quietly watched him walk back and forth. Hiro didn’t know what to say anymore. He thought he had had all of his questions worked out but after his impulsive moment of anger he felt too ashamed to even look at Tadashi.

“I’m sorry Tadashi, I didn’t mean to hit you,” Hiro stopped pacing and watched Tadashi’s reaction out of the corner of his eye.

“No , Hiro, you don’t have to apologize. It’s me who should apologize, I probably deserved that hit anyway,” Tadashi’s lips pulled up in a lopsided grin, before falling back into a frown.

Hiro nodded to himself deciding to push that to the side for the moment. He had more important things to think about. Tadashi wasn’t yelling at him yet, so he decided to ask the question that had been bothering him the most. He needed to know exactly why Tadashi had left him behind.

Hiro finally looked up at Tadashi again.

“Why did you run into the fire like that and leave me behind?” Hiro’s eyes were prickling and he realised his cheeks were wet. When had he started crying? “You knew it was dangerous Tadashi. You never do such stupid things.”

Hiro and Tadashi stood in silence. Seconds ticked by as the tension grew between the brothers and Hiro became angry again. Tadashi still wasn’t answering him and he was desperate to know if Tadashi had chosen Callaghan. He tried to calm himself but couldn’t help spitting out the question like poison, "Was saving Callaghan more important than staying with me?"

Tadashi's head snapped up faster than a bullet. Hiro looked both like he was about to crumple to the ground and like he wanted to break something. He was desperate for an answer and Tadashi didn’t know how to tell him the real reason he had run into the fire.

“I’m sorry Hiro," he tried. "I know. I know I was stupid and I shouldn’t have gone in there. I should have stayed with you, but I ran into the fire for _you._ Saving Professor Callaghan was not more important than staying with you but what was more important was your future. Professor Callaghan was a great man and I wanted him to teach you so I ran into that fire so I could be your hero. I wanted to run out of that building with Professor Callaghan so that I could be your hero and you would have the best possible time at SFIT. I'm so sorry Hiro, I was stupid and I regret every second of it."

Silence settled over them. The brothers stared at each other until Hiro couldn’t stand the suffocating silence anymore.

"You didn't choose Callaghan over me?" His voice was small in the deafening silence of the room.

"No Hiro, no. I could never choose anyone over my brother." Tadashi's voice became steadier, falling into the familiar role of comforting his little brother.

Hiro sniffled and thought about why Tadashi had run into the building. He had wanted to be Hiro's hero, but didn't he see that he already was? He didn't have to do any dashing heroics to be Hiro's idol.

“But… You’re already my hero. And you’re my big brother, and my best friend,” Hiro whispered

Hiro’s tears fell freely and when his vision cleared enough he saw Tadashi was crying too. It was strange seeing him cry. The tears that glistened on his cheeks seemed like they didn’t belong. It was like someone had come along and dripped water under Tadashi’s eyes.

Tadashi sniffed and wiped severely at his eyes.

“You really think that Hiro?” he whispered.

Hiro laughed and the sound was jarring in the quiet room. He sounded incredulous and hysterical.

“Yes of course I do! I always have.” Hiro thought of all the times Tadashi had gotten him out of trouble in school, with Aunt Cass, and most importantly, in bot fights.

“You idiot. I can’t believe you.” Tadashi flinched but Hiro couldn't bring himself to regret his words.

“I know,” Tadashi breathed.

Hiro leaned into Tadashi’s chest and wrapped his arms around his back.

“Don’t leave me again,” he pleaded.

Tadashi wrapped his arms around Hiro’s tiny frame and buried his face in his disheveled hair.

“Never again,” Tadashi promised. “I won’t do that to you a second time.”

Hiro cried without restraint into Tadashi’s shirt. He couldn’t believe he was here, couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that his brother, his hero, was alive and here and okay, but he was. The real nightmare was unbelievably over and now Hiro was wrapped in Tadashi’s arms feeling the warmth radiating from his body.

Baymax squeakily waddled over to the brothers and gathered both of them in his arms. He seemed to recognize the need to stay out of the conversation, but had carefully monitored both boys throughout it.

"My sensors indicate that both of your neurotransmittor are lowered, and there has been an increase in serotonin levels. You both appear to be experiencing strong emotions."

Sniffling and trembling, Hiro pulled away and wiped his tears from his cheeks. He looked up at Tadashi and laughed weakly at Baymax's diagnosis. He could always count on Baymax to know what was wrong with him.

Tadashi smiled and turned to Baymax.

"Hello Baymax. Did you take good care of Hiro for me?"

"Hiro is my patient," Baymax reassured. "I will not leave him until he is cured."

“Good," Tadashi seemed satisfied. He turned towards Hiro and opened his mouth to continue, but the shattering of glass and screeching tires from the street below interrupted his thought.

The brothers looked at each other as people started screaming outside. In unison, they dashed to the window to find the source of the peoples' screams. From below, they heard their friends rushing up the stairs.

Tadashi and Hiro turned as Wasabi, Fred, Gogo and Honey Lemon reached the top of the stairs.

"Sorry to crash the family reunion guys," Gogo crossed her arms and flicked her head towards the street, "but we've got some trouble outside."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right let's get this show on the road! Next chapter will be a bit more action-y. Hopefully it'll turn out all right because I'm still figuring out how to do fight scenes and everything. Wish me luck and I'll see all you lovelies on Friday!


	8. Reliving the Nightmare

"Hiro, where do you think you're going?" Tadashi demanded. He followed Hiro down the stairs and through the house as car alarms blared outside.

"I have to go help, Tadashi, people are in danger out there and I know I can help." Hiro was rushing for the garage where the team kept their 'saving the world' gear. Outside, people were still screaming among crashing metal and cars blasting their horns.

"No, Hiro, you can't. You’re gonna get yourself killed," Tadashi grabbed Hiro's arm and tried to spin him around. "You just told me you couldn't lose me, don't make me lose you."

Hiro stopped moving and turned to fully face Tadashi. The chaos outside the café became distant and unimportant in that moment.

Hiro looked up at his brother. Tadashi’s usually warm eyes glistened with tears again. He had a point. If Hiro went out there and got himself hurt, or worse killed, well he knew what it would do to Tadashi. He had gone through the same thing.

Still, Hiro had done this before. He had stopped Callaghan from killing anyone and had continued to keep San Fransokyo safe from any serious destruction.

Now though, outside sounded like some pretty serious destruction. San Fransokyo probably wouldn't be too impressed if the Big Hero 6 team chose this moment to lay low.

"Tadashi please," Hiro begged. "Just trust me, I know what I'm doing. Besides, Baymax and Honey, Gogo, Wasabi, and Fred will be with me too."

"I- wait Baymax?" Tadashi was thoroughly confused now. "What have you guys been _doing_ without me?"

Tadashi's grip on Hiro's arm had loosened just enough that Hiro could wiggle out of his hold. "Just trust me Tadashi. Take care of Aunt Cass!"

Hiro turned and ran for the garage before Tadashi could get another word in. As he walked in, he realized Tadashi knew nothing about their team or their armour. He didn’t even know about what Callaghan had done.

“Oh man…” He breathed and shook his head. Hiro had some explaining to do.

 He grabbed his armour and turned to his friends who were ready to go and holding pieces of Baymax’s armour.

"Alright, alright, what's the plan this time guys?" Wasabi always wanted a plan. It was good to have him on the team. He kept them organized and helped them work together.

"We need to find out what's going on first," Hiro had stepped up as unofficial official team leader and no one on the team had protested. "Help as many people as you can, and when we find out what's going on, regroup and we'll go from there."

Hiro picked up Baymax’s helmet and the team helped him into his armour as they tried to prepare themselves for what they would find outside. Hiro didn’t know what to expect. He had no idea what could be causing the total destruction outside, and no idea how he could stop it. Being a superhero was stressful, what was he supposed to do if he couldn’t help?

The team finished suiting up Baymax and opened the garage door.

Nothing could have prepared them for the scene that met them.

In a word, carnage. Shattered glass was scattered in the street and fires burned haphazardly in shops and cars. A smoky haze filled the air and a red glow cast an eerie light over everything. Hiro was shocked and wondered what could have caused this much destruction in such a short amount of time. People rushed from burning buildings and attempted to take shelter under anything they could find. Some less lucky ones lay unmoving in the street.

Honey Lemon gasped as Hiro let out a breath of horror. He didn't know where to begin. The incident at Krei tech had caused a lot of destruction but at least no one had been injured. Now though the casualties rose higher and higher the longer the team stood taking it all in.

"Come on guys," Gogo encouraged. "Let's put an end to this." She always got the team moving. Whenever they were stuck, her confidence would give them the boost they needed to keep fighting.

With her words the team shook off their shock and moved into action.

Hiro climbed onto Baymax and took off to find the source of the destruction. An aerial view of the city was the most efficient way to track down whatever or whoever it was that was causing this.

It didn't take Hiro long to track the path of destruction. From his height he saw a trail traced right down his street and the neighbouring roads and alleys. It looked like someone had coloured over the city blocks with a marker of destruction. In the centre of it all, a dark mass was swarming through the streets. It looked like a man was in the centre of it all, but it was hard to tell from his height and through the haze of smoke. Red pinpricks of light flashed throughout the mass but Hiro couldn't tell what they were.

Wasabi's voice crackled over the intercom, "Uh guys? Has anyone else found what I've found?"

"If you're talking about the mass of evil robots, I'm way ahead of you," Fred responded.

"Guys slow down," Hiro warned. "Do the robots have any red lights on them?"

"They've got these red glowing eyes," Honey reported back. "But that's about it."

Hiro looked back at the swarm of black with red lights scattered throughout. Those had to be the robots Wasabi and Fred were talking about but how many _were_ there? There had to be thousands of them but there was no indication of where they had come from.

"Guys, be careful!" Hiro was worried now. "Down by the subway station there's got to be thousands of those bots. They're destroying everything. I'm gonna fly in for a closer look, keep helping people and see if you can find out more about the robots."

"Be careful Hiro!"

Hiro leaned forward and engaged Baymax’s thrusters. He coughed through the smoke and flipped down his visor as he steadily got closer to the bots.

\---------------

Tadashi huddled with Aunt Cass beside the cabinets in the back of the café. He listened to the screams and alarms from outside as the pots and dishes rattled with the distant explosions. Tadashi pulled his Aunt a little bit closer to his side.

He hoped desperately that Hiro and their friends were okay. He didn’t understand why they had all rushed outside, but Hiro had said they could help. He had asked Tadashi to trust him and really, he didn’t have much choice. Hiro had been gone before he could get another word in.  

Still, just because he had chosen to trust Hiro didn’t mean he wasn’t worried sick over him. Tadashi had no way to contact him and no way to know whether Hiro was okay or not.

 _Stupid, stupid, stupid._ Tadashi berated himself over and over for letting Hiro go out there. Even with their friends, how was he going to put a stop to this? It sounded like World War Three in the street and four barely adults, a teenager, and a robot were going to put an end to it? Tadashi didn’t feel much better with that thought. He shifted uncomfortably with thoughts of how it should be him out there and how he should be protecting Hiro, not letting him waltz around in a war zone.

He couldn’t do anything though which made him even more frustrated. If he were to walk out there now, without any protection, he’d probably get himself killed pretty quickly. With no idea what was going on, or how dangerous it was out there, the best he could do was stay inside for now and keep Aunt Cass safe. He wanted to help, he itched to run outside and put an end to it all, but he had promised Hiro. He had promised that he wouldn’t make Hiro lose him again.

As they hid in the kitchen, Tadashi noticed the air was becoming hazier and hazier. Soon, he wasn’t able to see across the room.

Aunt Cass looked up. “Is something burning?”

She scrunched her nose and sniffed the air.

Tadashi breathed in and smoke burned down his throat and stung his eyes. Something _was_ burning and it was burning close.

Tadashi scanned the room. Through the door into the café, flames licked across the tables as the smoke alarms blared to life around them.

 _No_ he thought. This couldn't be like SFIT again. The café was on fire and he and Cass were trapped in the back room, the only way out blocked by the flames burning through the door.

Tadashi had to find a way out for himself and Aunt Cass. He couldn't leave Hiro with no one left in the world, especially so soon after getting him back.

He stood up and dragged Aunt Cass with him. The smoke burned his eyes and his lungs. The heat was becoming suffocating. He couldn't help but be reminded of being in the showcase fire.

He had to get out, but their options were pretty limited.

\---------------

Hiro switched off his intercom and looked down at Baymax.

“Have you scanned all _that_ yet?” He gestured towards the bots in exasperation.

“My sensors indicate no living life forms except for one in the centre of the robots. The life form appears to be an adult male in excellent physical condition. I am too far to take an accurate brain scan.”  


That confirmed it. There _was_ someone in the middle of it and if he was unharmed in the middle of the destruction, he must be the cause of it.

Hiro flew in closer, trying to get a good look. He searched his mind for ways to try and stop the man, but he didn’t think they’d be able to get close enough. The bots formed an impenetrable barrier around the figure, and seemed to protect him as much as they were destroying the city.

As Hiro got closer he was able to make out more details. The man was strange-looking. He was tall and stocky and had a hood pulled down over his face. What little Hiro could see of his skin was pale and papery, and a tuft of black hair curled out of his hood.

Suddenly, the man looked up directly at Hiro. His nearly white eyes glared maliciously at Hiro and his face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl. Hiro immediately felt like everything was hopeless when the man looked at him. He wanted to lie down and forget that he had anything to do.

“Go home little boy!” The man called. His voice was harsh and unpleasant. “I’ll have to kill you too if you don’t run home now.”

His voice was convincing, Hiro wanted to turn around right there and fly back to the café to get hot chocolate and cookies.

He shook his head trying to shake off the feeling. No. He had a job to do. He couldn’t abandon San Fransokyo now.

“I’m not leaving while you’re destroying everything!” Hiro announced. “Why are you doing this?” If Hiro could get the man talking, it might distract him and slow the carnage. Sirens screamed down the street as buildings crumbled and electrical wires sparked wildly. The world had gone from normal to apocalyptic faster than Hiro’s mind could process it.

The man shook his head and laughed cruelly. “Everyone’s a threat, but you remind me of my little sister,” he said. “I’ll let you live, for now, but not without a price. I truly am sorry to have to do this.” He really didn’t sound too sorry at all. The man flicked his hand and suddenly Wasabi was on the intercom, screaming at Hiro.

"Hiro, you need to come here! Hurry!" Wasabi’s disembodied voice sounded frantic in Hiro’s ear.

"What's going on? Where are you?" Already, Hiro was gaining altitude trying to spot the teal glow of Wasabi's plasma blades. The man could wait, Wasabi was more important at the moment.

"The café. Hurry!"

Hiro’s blood turned cold. What was happening at the café that had Wasabi so upset?

He turned in the direction of the cafe and immediately spotted the problem. Thick, black smoke billowed up from the street and Hiro knew it could only be his home that was on fire.

Hiro urged Baymax forward and flew to his home as fast as Baymax's thrusters could take them. He had left Tadashi there, told him to keep Aunt Cass safe. For all he knew, Tadashi was still in the fire and he would have a repeat of… no. He couldn’t think like that. He couldn’t lose Tadashi again, he wouldn’t allow it.

Touching down, he saw Wasabi standing on the opposite street corner, unsure of what to do. Hiro jumped off of Baymax and had only one thought on his mind. He rushed toward Wasabi.

"Where are Aunt Cass and Tadashi?" He barked over the sounds of alarms and sirens echoing off the buildings.

"I don't know! I didn't see them come out!"

 _No. Nonono._ This couldn't be happening. Hiro couldn't lose them. His family had been getting progressively smaller and smaller, he couldn’t be left alone now.

"I have to find them!" Hiro spun and looked the café as Wasabi jumped towards him and grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

Hiro's vision tilted and suddenly the showcase building stood in place of his home. Tadashi was running towards the bright flames and Hiro was helpless to stop him.

Hiro blinked and he was on his knees back on his street with Wasabi shaking his shoulders. He couldn't breathe, he felt like he was drowning.

"Hiro! Hiro can you hear me?" Hiro glanced up at Wasabi and tried to stand. He would find Tadashi, or die in the fire with him.

"I have to find Tadashi," he croaked. His throat felt dry and he couldn't see right.

"Hiro you can't, you're gonna be killed,"

Hiro ignored Wasabi's protests and shook off his attempts to stop him from entering the building. Hiro's heart was beating erratically in his throat and he felt sick.

 _Not again. Please not again._ Hiro's thoughts were blurring together as he struggled to his feet and stumbled toward the fire. The scene in front of him flickered between the Lucky Cat Café and the showcase building. He was sweating and shaking, his fear of losing his family consuming his thoughts. The fire blazed hotter as he drew closer, the heat becoming almost unbearable. Hiro squinted in the bright light as smoke filled his mouth and nose, smothering him.

He blinked and he was on the ground, staring up at the smoke hazed sky. Tadashi's face appeared above Hiro, covered in soot.

"Hiro! Hiro, look at me!" Hiro tried to focus but his vision was fuzzy around the edges.

"Hiro listen to me! I'm here, I'm safe!" Hiro felt detached from the world. Tadashi's voice sounded far away and his vision swam. He felt like he was watching the world from underwater.

Tadashi turned and motioned for something Hiro couldn't see. He was yelling frantically but Hiro couldn't make sense of the syllables. As Tadashi moved away, all he could think about was him running heroically, _stupidly,_ to his death and an intense panic took over his senses and blinded him.

Tadashi turned back and looked down at Hiro. He could feel Tadashi's hands on his shoulders and he could see his mouth moving, asking him a question, no asking, "Baymax scan Hiro!"

"My sensors indicate an elevated heart rate, and elevated blood pressure. Hiro is also breathing irregularly and appears to be experiencing intense fear." Baymax reported quickly, seeming to sense the gravity of the situation.

Hiro listened from another dimension. His world was still spinning and everything felt dream-like. Voices swirled around his head and shapes flickered in and out of focus as he slowly drowned in his panic. He couldn't draw enough breath, he felt like he was floating away.

Tadashi swam into focus again with Baymax and Gogo.

"Hiro, stay with me, look at me." Tadashi sounded frightened. Hiro had never seen him so scared before.

"Baymax, what do I do? How do I help him?"             

"Hiro's oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are imbalanced. I recommend breathing exercises to help calm him down."

"Hiro, I need you to focus on me." Hiro tried to stay in the present, but memories kept flashing through his mind. He was standing on the bridge with Tadashi, and people were screaming. He was standing in front of the fire again as Tadashi’s hat blew off his head.

"Hiro breathe! Please!"            

Hiro realized he had stopped breathing for a moment and took a shuddering breath. Tadashi smiled at him encouragingly.

"Yes, keep going Hiro. Deep breath in, then let it out slowly." Hiro reached up and clung to Tadashi's arms as he pulled himself into a sitting position. He slowly became aware of his surroundings as he took breath after shaky breath. He noticed his friends and Aunt Cass standing in a worried circle around him, watching his every move. He felt tears soaking his cheeks and sweat dampening his shirt.

Tadashi moved closer and lightly placed his arms around Hiro's shoulders. "I'm here, Hiro, I'm not giving up on you. You'll get through this just keep breathing."

After a few more breaths, Hiro tried to form words. "What happened?" He wondered. The words felt like lead in his mouth and he had to force them off his tongue.

Baymax leaned over and chimed in with a diagnosis. "You have experienced a panic attack, Hiro. It was most likely triggered by the fire in the café,"

"I... What?" Hiro didn't have panic attacks. He was _fine._ The fire at SFIT had been months ago... He wouldn't be just getting panic attacks now... Would he?

"A panic attack is often an early indication of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD can occur for multiple reasons, however in your case it was most likely triggered by the traumatic event of Tadashi's death. Symptoms can appear anywhere from days to years after the event." Baymax explained.

"Keep breathing Hiro," Tadashi reminded him. Hiro realized he was beginning to hyperventilate again.

"We need to get him to a safe place," Tadashi looked back at the café and grimaced. The café and the levels above had been completely consumed by the flames. "Does anyone know a place?"

"Yes!" Fred stepped forward and put on his best heroic face. "I know a place."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! (Though it was kinda sad huh?)
> 
> A couple notes about this chapter, fight scenes are not my forte so if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve I would love you forever. Also, I did quite a bit of research into panic disorder and even asked my friend (who deals with it too) some questions about panic attacks. In my opinion, I think I did an alright job with Hiro's panic attack however of someone feels like I've messed something up feel free to let me know. I would love to have your input on it.
> 
> Next chapter will be up monday but time is getting tight with school and everything so wish me luck with writing! See you all soon <3


	9. Change of Plans

Tadashi helped Hiro into a sitting position. He felt small and vulnerable under his touch and Tadashi worried about him. Baymax had said he was having a panic attack, had this been happening for a while?

As Hiro shakily stood up, a steady rumble shook the ground underneath them, quickly coming towards them. Tadashi looked up the street and saw a wave of glinting metal and red eyes spilling through the road.

Suddenly they were surrounded, and the robots formed a loose circle around them and stopped. Across the clearing, a man in a hoodie stood grinning cruelly.

"Hello again Hiro! Did you enjoy my surprise? I did warn you to run home," he mocked.

Tadashi pulled Hiro closer and shifted slightly in front of him, taking a defensive position. He wondered how this man knew Hiro and evidently Hiro thought the same thing as he weakly called out, "How do you know who I am?"

The man threw his head back and laughed, "You're not as flawless as everyone thinks Hiro Hamada! I looked you up on the police database, or did you forget about your criminal record? Arrested for illegal bot fighting along with your brother."

Tadashi froze and Hiro shivered behind him. Who _was_ this man?

The man continued to laugh under his breath as he spread his arms, showing off his robots.

"Do you like them?" He asked. "I designed them myself, top of the line programming. They're here to take out all the criminals in the city."

Tadashi's eyes widened. If he was here to take out the criminals, and he and Hiro had a criminal record...

His breath came out in a rush as Hiro seemed to come to the same conclusion. He gripped Tadashi's arm from behind, trying to pull him back.

Tadashi opened his mouth hoping to keep the man talking, but the man beat him to it and continued his taunting.

"You're in luck though!" He announced. "I need you for something else. Later though, later."

The man waved his hand nonchalantly then paused and looked around at his robots. He grinned and continued, "For now, I'll just take you all and toss you in a cell. Can’t have you interfering with the rest of my plans now, can we?”

"What? No!"

The bots surged for them, surrounding them and pressing in uncomfortably close.

Tadashi didn’t have any time to think, the bots were faster than he had expected. He turned and picked Hiro up, hoping to escape and get as far away as possible from the army.

There was no space between the bots, Tadashi couldn't see his friends or Aunt Cass anywhere. His heart pounded in his ears as he fought through the robots. No choice but to keep going and hope his friends made it out too.

Hiro twisted in his arms and looked up at him.

“Baymax! Go to Baymax!” he shouted over the noise of the bots. “He can get us out of here!”

Tadashi wasn’t one to argue and immediately scanned the area for the huggable robot in question. The bots still formed a metallic curtain around him but finally there, near the remains of the café, Baymax stood not looking very huggable at all. He briefly wondered what Baymax was wearing before he was in front of him and Hiro was clambering away from Tadashi and onto Baymax's back.

“Baymax, wings!” Hiro ordered.

Baymax deployed his wings, making Tadashi jump back in surprise, and looked down at him.

“Tadashi, please hold on and exercise caution, flying can be dangerous,” Baymax warned and held his hand out for Tadashi to cling on to.

“Wait, what? Flying?” Tadashi froze and gaped at Hiro.

"Baymax, grab him!" Hiro shrieked.

Baymax reached for Tadashi and held him securely. Tadashi started to protest until Baymax shot into the air and Tadashi scrambled to find purchase on Baymax's fist.

The wind rushed through his hair and Tadashi looked over his shoulder at the battle getting smaller and smaller below.

They shot through the streets faster than he thought possible. He searched for his friends in the bots and finally spotted a flash of pink among the grey metal.

"Honey-!" The wind whipped his voice away making it impossible to speak.

Baymax flew over the streets and landed a few blocks away, hidden by the tall buildings. Tadashi stumbled as his feet touched the ground and nearly tripped into the wall. He leaned his arms and forehead against the side of the building and tried to catch his breath. Whatever he had been expecting, it was _not_ that.

Tadashi turned around when he heard Hiro breathing heavily again. He was leaning against Baymax, and it was only now that Tadashi allowed himself to really take in what the two of them were wearing. The purple and red armour looked like it had come straight out of one of Fred’s comic books, though it looked impressively high-tech. Tadashi wondered if Hiro had created it all on his own. He wouldn't put it past him.

He was brought out of his thoughts as Hiro slid to his knees and slumped against Baymax. Tadashi rushed to his side and held his shoulders.

"They're gone," Hiro sobbed. He looked up at Tadashi with glassy eyes. "They're gone and it’s all my fault."

"No Hiro, It’s okay, they'll be okay," Tadashi soothed. He didn't actually know if their friends and Aunt Cass were okay. He hated himself for leaving them behind. Glimpsing Honey Lemon had sealed it for him and he felt incredibly guilty for it.

Hiro couldn't know what he had seen though. Not when he looked on the verge of another panicking again. One episode was exhausting enough but there was no telling what two in rapid succession would do to him.

Tadashi reminded Hiro to breathe deeply as the boy’s breathing became more rapid.

As he crouched on the ground beside Hiro, he thought of their home, or more accurately what was left of it. In the span of about two hours, they had just lost everything. Their friends, their family, their home. He wondered what they would do now. Where could they go?

He held Hiro close and tried to think of somewhere safe. Hiro was still shaking in his arms and keeping him out on the street with the remnants of alarms and shouts still echoing through the city wasn’t doing anything to help him.

Then he thought of someone he had just met for the first time only a handful of days before. Abigail. He barely knew her, but she was his only hope. If she was still okay, and her house was still intact, it might be the only place he and Hiro had left to go. She lived in another district so he prayed her house was still there. The hooded man couldn't destroy the whole city in two hours, could he?

"Come on, Hiro. Let's get out of here." He urged.

"Where are we going?" Hiro watched him for his next decision.

"Somewhere safe," Tadashi stated. "To someone who might be able to help."

\---------------

Wasabi was _not_ prepared for this.

Sure he had a fresh pair of underwear, a bottle of water, and a stack of Band-Aids, but being kidnapped by a swarm of scary robots was _not_ something he had thought would happen to him. Come to think of it, he didn’t even think it was something that _could_ happen.

But now, here he was, sitting in a dark room God knows where. At least he had his friends with him.

Sitting up, Wasabi looked around at the tiny cell he and his friends were locked in. Past the bars, the hallway was dark and looked like it hadn't been used in years. He could hear rodents skittering around, making him shudder in revulsion.

He felt gross. Sitting in a moldy, dark prison cell was not the way he had wanted to wake up.

Wasabi shifted, trying to touch the least amount of floor space he could, and watched as Gogo stirred and slowly regained consciousness. He half-wished they had Baymax here too so that he could check for any serious injuries.

Gogo sat up and held her head. When she finally scanned her surroundings and spotted Wasabi, she quickly scooted over to him.

"Figure out where we are yet?" She whispered.

"No,” He began. “But I have figured out that I don't want to be here."

Gogo squinted at him, trying to decide if he was joking.

"Let's just get the others up and get out of here," she responded.

The two of them stood up and gently shook their friends and Aunt Cass awake. Everyone blearily blinked into consciousness and took in their surroundings, which only appeared to make them more uncomfortable.

One by one, everyone sat up. Silence filled the air that no one was willing to break.

Finally, Honey Lemon whispered, “Where are Tadashi and Hiro?”

Everyone looked around expecting the brothers to appear beside them out of thin air.

“If they’re here, Evil Man probably has them somewhere else. Maybe he’s using them for his evil plot!”

“Timing Fred…” Wasabi warned and glanced at Aunt Cass. She sat stiffly in the corner, looking like she was trying not to appear worried.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but Fred has a point. If they’re here, why aren’t they with us?” Gogo asked.

The team fell into silence again as no one had an answer.

“If they’re here, we have to find them!” Fred eventually spoke.

“Yeah, but in case you haven’t noticed, we’re stuck in a moldy prison cell,” Wasabi snarked.

"Just slice through the bars Wasabi, you cut through a metal door before," Gogo sassed back and folded her arms in front of her.

Wasabi made a face at her then stood up and stepped towards the rusty bars. He flicked the on switch for his lasers but nothing happened. He looked down at his hands in confusion and tried again, but still the lasers stayed stubbornly off. He turned around and guiltily looked at his friends.

"Something's wrong, I can't get the lasers to work. No lasers, no plasma." He shrugged apologetically.

Gogo threw up her hands in frustration. "Honey? What about you? Can you make the bars brittle enough to break?"

Honey looked around but her purse was nowhere in sight.

"I've lost my purse," she frowned. "Hood-man must have taken it while I was unconscious."

“This guy’s another supervillain people!” Fred announced.

Gogo raised an eyebrow.

“He’ll be smart,” he lowered his voice and continued, ignoring Gogo’s expression. “He won’t let us get away that easily.”

Gogo glared at Fred a moment longer for good measure, then reluctantly admitted defeat. “Anyone else have any suggestions?”

“I think I know how to get out of here,” everyone turned at the sound of Aunt Cass’s voice, almost forgetting that she was there with them.

She stared at the corroded lock on the door with a look of concentration. Wasabi peered at it too. It seemed simple enough, but no one ever used these kinds of locks anymore, they were a bit obsolete. Wasabi wondered if they could break it, or unlock it somehow with a bit of fiddling.

Aunt Cass pushed herself up and reached for her hair, pulling out a bobby pin. She worked steadily at the lock and in a few minutes the door was unlocked and swinging forward on squeaking hinges.

The team stared in shock. No one would have thought Aunt Cass of all of them would be the one getting them out of this place.

She turned around with a pleased smile that faded into a worried look when she saw everyone's disbelief.

"What?" She asked.

"We just didn't expect you to know how to pick a lock..." Honey said.

"Well I didn't grow up in the stone age for nothing." Aunt Cass smiled cheerfully and walked out of the cell.

\---------------

The last thing Tadashi had had in mind for a healthcare robot was the ability to fly. Baymax, of course had promptly informed him that flying made him a better health care companion. Hiro insisted that a flying Baymax was just plain awesome.

As they flew towards Abigail’s district, Tadashi kept a close eye on Hiro. He seemed to be doing better now but he looked exhausted. He needed sleep as soon as possible and then Tadashi had a few questions for him. Apparently they had gotten a lot done in the months he had been frozen in cryosleep.

Thinking of that, he wondered how he _was_ alive. Everything told him he should have died in that fire. Honey Lemon had told him how she had felt the heat in the parking lot, and Wasabi told him that nothing had been salvageable in the ashes. When Tadashi thought back to it, he remembered how bad the fire was. He remembered the heat and the smoke, the burning in his eyes, and then nothing. He was drawing a blank after that and had no idea how to fill it. Suddenly he was waking up in Abigail’s basement with no recollection of leaving the exhibition hall.

He had gone in for Callaghan… _Oh God, Professor Callaghan._ It hadn’t even hit him until then. If nothing had been found in the aftermath then that meant… no maybe Callaghan was somewhere in cryosleep like he had been. Tadashi squeezed his eyes shut and tried to will away his thoughts.

Finally, Baymax landed gently on the street in front of Abigail’s house. This section of the city was a world apart compared to their district. The buildings were entirely untouched and faint stars twinkled above the dazzling city lights. The only evidence of a problem was the sirens screaming in the distance and the haze of smoke lingering among the buildings.

Tadashi stepped on to Abigail’s tiny porch and rapped sharply on the door. _Please be home_ he thought. He didn’t know where else to go if Abigail wasn’t home. He didn’t have the money for a hotel and any remaining family members lived hours away. Seconds ticked by as Tadashi steadily grew more and more nervous. Would she take them in? Would she even remember who he was?

Finally, he heard footsteps from inside and the door swung open revealing a very worried looking Abigail Callaghan.

“Tadashi?” Abigail looked past Tadashi and saw Hiro and Baymax in the street behind him. “Oh God, what happened? Was that your district that was destroyed?”

Tadashi nodded and told her what happened. “We’ve lost everything. Our house caught on fire, we don’t know where our Aunt is, and all of our friends are gone. We have nowhere to go, is there any way we could stay with you for a night or two, until we figure something out?”

Tadashi’s throat felt tight after relaying the information. Thinking about all he had lost, and the fate of his friends and family made tears prickle behind his eyes. Tadashi needed her to say yes. He didn’t want to be sleeping out on the street and he especially didn’t want Hiro out on the street.

“Yes, yes come in, hurry,” Abigail moved aside and motioned the boys into her home. Tadashi’s shoulders sagged with relief and he stepped in. He remembered being carried through this room by the paramedics, but hadn’t had the chance to really look around. The kitchen made up the front of the house and Abigail kept it spotless. Everything was neat and tidy, right down to all the chairs being pushed in at the kitchen table on the right wall of the room.

At that moment, Hiro stepped through the door and Baymax tried to squeeze in behind him. Tadashi turned back to the door and tried to hide his laughter as he watched Hiro awkwardly try to maneuver Baymax though the door. It was amusing seeing such a giant figure attempt to make it through such a small space. He joined in with helping and after a bit of shuffling, they got him through the door with the only damage being an overturned table.

“I don’t know how to thank you Abigail. You’re helping us so much.” Tadashi righted the small table then followed Abigail through the kitchen as she led them to the stairs.

“It’s the least I could do for you. My father caused so much damage, I just hope I can make up for it.”

Damage? Thinking back, Tadashi realized just about everyone had mentioned the professor in one way or another… maybe he was still alive. Alive and awake it seemed. But what was all this about damage? Professor Callaghan wouldn’t do anything bad would he? Not the professor he knew.

At the top of the stairs, Abigail showed Hiro and Tadashi into one of the rooms. “I’ll let you get settled in for now, tell me if you need anything.” With one last worried glance at the boys, she turned and went back downstairs, letting the brothers figure out how to get Baymax into the room.

Hiro set to removing Baymax’s armour piece by piece until it was all removed and Baymax fit in the house much better. It was tricky fitting Baymax in the house with all the bulky armour, but now without it he could actually fit through the doorways.

Baymax and Hiro walked into the bedroom and Tadashi followed close behind. He watched as Hiro slumped against Baymax’s soft vinyl belly, and looked down at the floor. Tadashi could see tears glittering in eyes partly shadowed by his bangs.

“Hiro…?” He moved to his brother and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

Hiro had been unusually quiet throughout all of this. Tadashi was used to his snappy remarks in every situation they got into together so his silence was unnerving. Tadashi reached over and gently shut the door.

“I’m fine Tadashi.” Hiro’s voice quavered slightly.

Tadashi knelt down in front of Hiro and studied him carefully. He was pale and his eyes were red and puffy. He looked exhausted, like he would drop any second.

“Why don’t you try to sleep a bit?” Tadashi suggested.

At this, Hiro’s eyes widened slightly as he frantically shook his head no. Tadashi looked up at Baymax, hoping for an update on Hiro’s status.

“Hiro appears to still be suffering from acute fear, often seen in PTSD. PTSD can also lead to sleeping problems and nightmares.”  Baymax was getting smarter, he would almost say becoming more human. He was learning how to interact with people just from looks, rather than having to order him to do something. Baymax was thinking for himself.

“Thank you, Baymax,” Tadashi turned back to Hiro. “Why don’t you and I talk then?”

Tadashi sat down with his back to the wall and pulled Hiro in beside him. Hiro listlessly dropped to the floor beside Tadashi and leaned in to his side.

“What’s there to say?” Hiro asked.

“Why don’t we start at the beginning? What happened while I was gone?” At this Hiro flinched and Tadashi squeezed his shoulder, “What’s all this business with Professor Callaghan?”

“Callaghan wanted revenge,” Hiro stated bitterly.

“Revenge for what?” Tadashi asked.

“For his daughter,” Hiro explained.

“What do you mean?” Tadashi asked. “Abigail is right here, she’s fine isn’t she?”

“Yeah… but she wasn’t always okay,” Hiro explained the teleporter incident to Tadashi. Tadashi listened closely, hanging off Hiro’s every word. Callaghan had nearly killed Allistair Krei in revenge for his daughter’s death, and Tadashi realized Hiro could have easily reacted the way Callaghan did, and in the beginning he had. Hiro had been upset and angry and had tried to kill Callaghan, but a certain friendly robot had changed his mind and his goals. Tadashi was thankful Baymax had taken such good care of Hiro.

“And now Callaghan is in jail and we’re here.” Hiro finished. Tadashi sat quietly for a moment, considering all the events before pulling Hiro into a hug.

“I am so proud of you,” he whispered into his hair.

Hiro looked up, “Proud of me? Why?”

“Because what you did, with saving Abigail and not harming Callaghan. That was something only a hero could do. It sounds to me like you sacrificed a lot to do what was right, and for that, I’m proud of you.”

Hiro looked down at his hands smiling slightly, “Thanks, Tadashi,” he mumbled.

Tadashi smiled and ruffled his hair. “C’mon let’s get you to sleep. We’ve been through a lot and sleep would be good right now.”

Hiro nodded and looked over to Baymax, “How’s your battery buddy?”

“My battery is currently at 82% and will last approximately another 46 hours,” Baymax reported.

Tadashi turned to Hiro, “46 _hours?_ What did you do to him?”

Hiro grinned cheekily and told him, “I replaced the lithium ion batteries with super capacitors,”

Tadashi shook his head and let out a breathy laugh. “You did say they would last longer and charge faster.”

Tadashi turned off the light and together they climbed into bed, silently agreeing to decide on how to deal with their situation in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! First of all I must apologize for missing the monday update. I am so so so so sorry but life came and slapped me in the face and I had tests and quizzes galore this week, a swim meet, and I had to go to the doctor. But I'm here now only 3 days late (or a day early if you look at it from tomorrow's perspective). Anyway I'm here now and I'm on a long weekend so I will make this monday. Thank you all for being so patient with me.
> 
> Next thing, a wonderful wonderful guest left me a lovely comment over on fanfiction and I wanted to thank you so much for your comment. I woke up to it actually and it just made my entire day. It gave me the confidence to keep going and I worked extra hard to be the best I could be on this chapter. I hope you'll keep reading (and commenting because I love you) and you deserve a thousand cookies.
> 
> Finally, this chapter! Despite trying my best and working hard, I still feel a bit iffy about it, but I think I'm mostly happy. I did tons of research, more stuff on PTSD, stuff about robots, so I hope I'm fairly accurate with all that. And yeah, that's about it! So tell me what you think and I'll see everyone on monday!
> 
> (Also sorry for the long author note haha).


	10. Tadashi Hamada

Gogo crept down the dark hallway and signalled for her friends to wait. She peered around the corner, watching for any signs of movement. The team still had no idea where they were, and this hooded man seemed ruthless and violent. They couldn’t risk being caught again. He was willing to leave them in this dark place the first time, what would he do if he caught them a second time?

Seeing no obvious threat around the corner, Gogo motioned for the team to continue following her. A delicate silence followed them and no one was willing to break it. Together they walked the eerie hallways, trying to find a way out of their prison.

Gogo could tell they had been here for a long time already. Hunger pains had started cramping her stomach and her mouth and throat were dry from lack of water. Wasabi of course had had a bottle of water but between the five of them, it hadn’t lasted long.

Looking for a way out was harder than it seemed. The dark hallways twisted around each other creating a confusing maze that was impossible to figure out. Being unconscious when they were brought in wasn't helping their situation either. They had talked and tried to keep each other in high spirits when they had first walked out of their cell, but now everyone was tired and hungry, and with what seemed like hours of walking with still no aign if Tadashi and Hiro or a way out, everyone was a bit discouraged. Even Fred had fallen into a rare silence.

Up ahead, Gogo heard a quiet beep. She pressed herself against the wall and everyone else quickly followed suit. She crept slowly down the hall as a red glow gradually brightened the long corridor. A small, plain door became visible off to the side as they kept moving. The door was slightly ajar, and the noise was coming from inside the room.

Gogo turned and flicked her head towards the door, indicating her intention to check it out. Everyone looked back at her worriedly but eventually agreed. They didn't have much of a choice, it was the only lead they had gotten for anything.

They came to an agreement and Gogo cautiously poked her head around the door. A computer terminal sat alone at a desk, the only piece of furniture besides a chair, in the tiny room. The screen displayed a map of San Fransokyo, and sections were blocked out in varying shades of red.

Gogo moved further into the room and sat in front of the computer.  She navigated through the running program, finding various maps of San Fransokyo, locations, and dates.

Gogo dared to break the silence, “Guys? You might want to see this.” She winced as her scratchy voice sounded louder in the absolute silence.

Everyone filed into the room and gathered around the computer to see what Gogo had found.

“These must be the areas he’s planning to attack,” Honey Lemon whispered. “Look, there’s the residential district where the cafe is, and the date it was destroyed.”

Gogo searched further into the computer, looking for more information. She pulled up any information she could find on the user, but there wasn’t much.

“All it says here is that the guy using this thing calls himself ‘Everwraith’. This guy isn’t messing around. There’s nothing about a location, no personal information. All we’ve got is his plan for destroying the city.” Gogo leaned closer to the screen and continued clicking through different programs.

“Don’t make that sound like such a bad thing. We can use this,” Wasabi suggested. “Look, if we remember a district and its date each, we’ve got his whole plan figured out and that puts us a step ahead of him.”

“Fred is not memorising the next one, he can have the one farthest in the future,” Gogo quickly silenced Fred who had his mouth open, about to say something.

“Good plan,” Honey quickly tried to avert their attention from the bickering match that was coming. The team picked their districts with Gogo having the next one. Aunt Cass volunteered to take a district too, insisting she wasn’t there to be dead weight.

“Okay, now let’s find a way out of here.” Gogo checked for other maps on the computer and finally connected to a map of San Fransokyo that showed their current location. They were on the outskirts of the city, and when she zoomed in, she found they were underground below a street of small businesses and upstairs apartments. The exit door was about 600 metres out the door of the computer room and to the left.

“That’s a little anti-climactic,” she stated. “We’re practically out of here already.”

"What about Hiro and Tadashi?" Honey asked.

"I don't see anything about them here, and we can't go back and get lost again. We'll have to come back for them later, if they're even here."

Honey Lemon looked upset over this and glanced over to Aunt Cass.

"I hate to say it, but Gogo has a point," Wasabi agreed. "It's too dangerous to go back in without knowing where we're going."

"We'll find them, the superheroes always find each other," Fred insisted.

Honey nodded slightly and took a breath. “Well then what are we waiting for? The sooner we're out of here the sooner we can find Hiro and Tadashi."

Honey Lemon smiled encouragingly at Aunt Cass then turned and walked straight into a new figure that had gone unnoticed for who knew how long.

He stood silently in the doorway, his eyes covered by his hood and his grin almost glowing like a crescent moon.

\---------------

Hiro startled awake as flames danced away at the edge of his vision. His breath came in short bursts and a cold sweat plastered his hair to his face. Slowly, memories of the night before came back to him. The fire, the hooded man, his friends, _oh God._ Hiro tried to take deep breaths as Tadashi had told him to do the day before.

Beside him, Tadashi swallowed and turned over in his sleep. His brows were knitted together, giving him a look of unrest. In the corner, Baymax stood quietly in sleep mode preserving his battery life.

Hiro felt panic pushing its way up his throat. His hands shook as flames continued to dance in his mind’s eye. He looked at the time, _6:03am_ he read to himself. His heart rate crept higher and higher as he tried to push the panic down.

“T-Tadashi,” He reached for Tadashi to shake him awake.

Tadashi blinked his eyes open and sleepily looked up at Hiro. As soon as he saw Hiro's expression he was sitting up with his hands placed gently on his shoulders.

“Breathe, Hiro. I’m here to help you.” Hiro nodded, grateful that Tadashi was able to figure out the problem without him having to explain. He and Tadashi had always been close enough to read each other. They could have entire conversations through looks alone, and Hiro’s panicked expression told Tadashi all he needed to know.

“Why does this keep happening?” His voice was raw and his throat was tight. Hiro couldn’t understand why he was suddenly panicking so much now. He had been fine in the days following Tadashi’s death, he had had a few nightmares, some trouble sleeping, but he dealt with it. So why now? Why couldn’t he just calm himself down?

“I don’t know, Hiro. It could have been anything. But right now just focus on breathing. In and out, slowly.” Tadashi soothed Hiro and gently rubbed his back. Hiro leaned into the touch, enjoying the warmth he felt through his shirt.

They sat quietly in the morning half-light, waiting out the attack. As the minutes ticked by, Hiro’s breath gradually evened out as his heart rate returned to normal.

“I’m sorry, Tadashi,” Hiro whispered. He felt guilty for panicking so much. He had no reason to, and now he was subjecting Tadashi to his fear and anxiety.

“No, Hiro. This isn’t something you need to apologize for. You never asked for this and you’re my brother. I’m always here for you, you don’t need to apologize.”

Hiro nodded stiffly, thinking of their friends and Aunt Cass.

“They’re all gone,” he stated, “We have to look for them! We can’t just abandon everyone!” Hiro looked up at Tadashi who looked down at him curiously.

“Go after them? How are we gonna do that? I want them back too Hiro, but you saw what that guy could do. He’s got to have hundreds of those bots, and he doesn’t sound too sympathetic.”

“I know, but we’ve gotta try. I’ve got an idea.” Hiro knew what he wanted to do, and the only place left he could do it was the Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab.

“And what’s that genius?” Tadashi sounded like he was humouring him.

“We’ve gotta go to nerd school.”

\---------------

“They named a building after me?!” Tadashi exclaimed in disbelief as they walked by the Tadashi Hamada Lecture Hall.

Hiro laughed as he walked with Baymax down the sidewalk. Tadashi's eyes were comically wide and his mouth hung open as he stared up at the building.

Tadashi didn’t know what to think about that. He wasn’t anything special really. Just another student. Having a whole building named after him embarrassed him, but made him a little bit proud too.

“Why would they name a building after me?”

“Well after everyone found out that you had run in to save Callaghan, they decided you were a hero and built a new lecture hall in your name. There’s also the Tadashi Hamada Scholarship. Anyone who shows heroism or bravery or whatever gets the award.”

Tadashi looked down at his brother. An award in his name? A building? Apparently people thought better of him than he did of himself.

“Has anyone gotten the award yet?” He asked.

“Uh… yeah. The first one was given out for this year.” Hiro avoided Tadashi’s eyes and kicked a stone down the path.

“Well who got it?” He pressed.

Hiro was quiet for a moment before answering shortly, "Me."

Tadashi stopped walking. A few steps down the sidewalk and Hiro realized Tadashi had stopped following him. He turned to look back at his brother.

“You got my award?” Tadashi asked.

“Uh… Yeah. After they found out everything I did with Callaghan, and how I saved Abigail, the university figured I’d be a pretty good candidate for the first Tadashi Hamada Award.” Hiro’s cheeks reddened as he scuffed his feet along the sidewalk.

Tadashi grinned with pride at his little brother. He had gone through so much and still had the strength to let Callaghan go and save his daughter in the end. Brother or not, if anyone deserved the Tadashi Hamada Award, it was Hiro Hamada.

Tadashi caught up with Hiro and ruffled his hair, “I’m proud of you, nerd.”

The brothers continued walking toward the robotics lab in the early afternoon sunshine. At the university, nothing seemed amiss. Tadashi could almost forget about what had happened only hours before. He could even pretend that he and Hiro had been going to classes together for weeks now.

Tadashi’s smile turned sad as he thought about all he had missed. Hiro had changed quite a bit in his absence. Despite the developing panic attacks and nightmares, Hiro seemed more mature. Tadashi looked at his brother and realised that he wouldn't have to worry about his bot-fighting habits anymore. He could tell that wasn't a problem just from the few hours they had been together. Of course there were other things he could worry about now, but being the older Hamada brother made it a rule that Tadashi would always worry over Hiro.

Hiro and Tadashi walked into the robotics lab where it was strangely quiet for a weekday. Only a few students were working on their own projects in the lab. Tadashi looked around. It was strange being back. He still felt like he had only been gone for a day or two, but projects he remembered seeing others starting were now in the late stages of completion. Tadashi was constantly being reminded of how life had gone on without him. He had missed so much and it hurt. He realised how much he enjoyed living, and how stupid of a decision it was to run into that fire.

“Hey, Tadashi! You gonna stand there dreaming all day or are you gonna start working with me?” Hiro was halfway into Tadashi’s old workspace, looking at Tadashi with one eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, I’m coming.” Tadashi walked toward the lab. “Impatient,” he muttered.

“I heard that!” Hiro laughed as he pushed off the door frame and disappeared into the room.

Tadashi followed and opened the door to his old lab. Clearly, Hiro had added his own touch to the workspace. Empty drink cans and crumpled chocolate bar wrappers were scattered on the tabletops and a giant red first rested on the shelf under the window. Beside the computer, a picture of Tadashi and Hiro standing on the beach together was displayed in a simple wood frame. Tadashi was happy Hiro had gotten his workspace. It was weird to try and imagine someone else working where he had spent so much of his time.

“Well? What’s this brilliant idea you’ve got in that brain of yours?” Tadashi asked. He pulled out a chair and sat down as he waited for Hiro to explain what he had in mind.

“Alright, alright.” Hiro bounced excitedly and brought up a program on his computer. Tadashi looked at the images displayed on the monitor and recognized the armour that Hiro was wearing. He still hadn’t taken it off since yesterday. They didn't have anything else to wear though and even Tadashi was still stuck in his scorched clothes.

“Okay so I told you that while you were gone, all our friends and Baymax and I pretty much became superheroes right?”

“Ye-es,” Tadashi had an idea where this was going.

“Well now it’s just you and me and Baymax, and we’ve gotta find everyone else. So, you need some awesome gear too so we can defeat this weirdo and get our friends back!” Hiro turned and beamed at Tadashi. With a face like that, Tadashi couldn’t possibly tell Hiro no. Besides, having gear like Hiro’s sounded pretty neat.

“Alright, what do I have to do?”

Hiro grinned and grabbed a scanner off the desk.

"Arms up,” he told him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Look she made it on time this week!) Well here I am everyone, back as promised! And I even got a bit ahead with my long weekend so I'll probably make Friday even with my final swimming competition coming up.
> 
> Okay so a little bit about this chapter, the part with the building and the award, I don't know if any of you have read Hiro's Journal or if you really paid attention to the credits but it was something I noticed. In the credits of the movie, there's a news article about the opening of the Tadashi Hamada Memorial Hall and there's another article about Hiro getting a university scholarship so I thiught it would be kinda cool if I   
> made the scholarship in Tadashi's name as well. Haha yeah a little movie trivia there! 
> 
> Also comments, all you lovely people commenting make me so happy and hello again my guest friend I see your other comment there. Gosh it made my day again thank you so so much I really love the comments you leave they make me so happy and I feel so much more confident when I read them. <3
> 
> And yeah, that's it from me! See you all on Friday! (I hope).


	11. Big Hero...7?

Honey gasped and stepped back, staring at Everwraith. He was tall, Honey Lemon was eye level with him even with her heels on.

He grinned cruelly. "Like my plan?" He asked, "Good thing I don't keep everything in one place, you've barely even discovered half of it."

The team was frozen in shock as Everwraith pushed his way toward the computer terminal. He turned off the monitor and spun oh his heel, facing the team again.

"It appears I've underestimated you all. You got out much faster than I expected you to."

"Wait you expected us to get out?" Gogo looked incredulous.

"Of course! I've been following the news stories, I'm not stupid. I know you're a group of geniuses so of course I knew you would get out just... Not so soon."

Outside the door, clanking filled the hallway and red lights appeared in the door frame.

"Ah! Right on time!" Everwraith looked out the door and motioned for his bots to file into the room.

“Wait!” Aunt Cass boldly stepped forward, staring Everwraith down.

Everwraith looked at her with disinterest then rolled his eyes. “Well? Out with it, what do you want?” He slouched back and inspected a nonexistent spot on his sleeve.

“What have you done with my nephews?” Aunt Cass’s voice shook in barely concealed fury.

At this Everwraith took interest and glanced up at Aunt Cass. “Who, Hiro and his brother Tadashi? They’re fine for now I suppose. Enough, enough though.” Everwraith looked at his waiting bots. “You can take them away now, you know what to do.”

He stepped back as the bots shifted into action, quickly forcing the team against the walls. Honey tried to fight back, but the huge amount of the bots along with her lack of a weapon, left her overwhelmed and backed into a corner.

She looked through the bots to her friends, hoping for help, but they were just as overwhelmed as she was. At least six bots surrounded each person, including Aunt Cass. Honey’s resolve weakened as she realized they were fighting a losing battle.

"Just give up heroes!" Everwraith called, continuing to taunt them. "I don't want to have to hurt you!"

"We have no choice guys! We can't fight them, maybe we can figure something else out later," Wasabi's suggestion sounded reasonable, but there was no telling what the bots would do to them if they got captured again.

Gogo seemed to agree but put up a fight anyway. "How do we know they aren't gonna kill us as soon as they grab us?" She shrieked as she kicked one of the bots away from her.

"We don't! But what other choice do we have?" Wasabi countered.

"Uh, fight them maybe?"

"How do we fight without any of our weapons? Not all of us know martial arts Gogo!"

As Gogo and Wasabi continued to argue, Honey focused on keeping the bots away from her. She was surprised to see Aunt Cass holding her own, kicking bots away in the opposite corner of the room. She thought of Hiro, telling them to look for a new angle, she remembered hearing Tadashi in his lab telling Baymax _I'm not giving up on you._

Suddenly, she had an idea, and she desperately hoped the springs in the feet of Fredzilla still worked.

“Fred!” Honey Lemon tried to sidle through the bots to Fred. It was slow going, but eventually she kicked and pushed her way around the bots just enough to get close to Fred.

“I have an idea!” She said just over the noise of the fight. “Do you think you could spring off the wall? If you can do that, and launch yourself through the robots, it might clear a path for us just long enough to get out.”

Fred grinned, already beginning to bounce. “Oh yeah! Now _that’s_ an idea for a superhero!”

Honey Lemon fought the bots around her, trying to keep a clear area for Fred to jump into the wall. It was a long shot, jumping off the wall would not be easy in such a small space, but it was their only hope.

Suddenly, Fred sprung to the wall and pushed off it like a bullet. He plowed through a line of robots with his fist extended in front of him, clearing just enough of a space for the team to run. Fred shot out the door and sat up looking extremely pleased with himself.

“Ye-ah! Superjump!” He exclaimed.

“Run, hurry!” Honey Lemon ran out the door and stopped only long enough to help Fred up, before she sprinted for the exit. The rest of the team followed closely behind her.

The team ran faster than any of them had ever run before. Honey’s legs were burning, her lungs were screaming at her to stop and rest but she couldn’t. She knew if she did, the bots and Everwraith would waste no time in capturing them again. The door rushed up on them and suddenly daylight. They were out.

\---------------

Tadashi raised his arms as Hiro scanned his image into the computer. Tadashi threw ideas around in his head, but he wondered if the tech he had in mind would even be possible.

"And done. Alright alright, what do you want?" Hiro was vibrating with excitement, already pulling up design ideas and drawing sketches into the computer.

"How about... Healing powers?" Tadashi joked.

"Sorry bro, Baymax's got that job," Tadashi pouted in mock disappointment.

"Alright... How about force fields?" Tadashi grinned as Hiro's eyes lit up.

"Yes, perfect! We can integrate super magnets throughout your armour, like the ones I have on mine, but if we run an electric current over the magnets using a supercapicitor, we should be able to create an energy field over your armour!" Hiro looked like a kid on Christmas morning. He bounced in his chair, his hands flying over the keyboard, grinning over the new ideas forming in his head.

Tadashi laughed as he listened to Hiro's explanation. Of course he would already know how to create a field of pure energy so that Tadashi could protect himself. Hiro was a kid genius after all.

"I can also put in extra carbon-fiber reinforcements into your gloves and shoes. That’ll enhance your strength and you can use karate to fight too. It'll be like the bots being hit by a wall."

"Sounds like you've got it figured out nerd," Hiro grinned and Tadashi shoved him further away, leaning in to get a closer look at the design.

It was good. Really good Tadashi thought. The design was similar to Hiro's own armour. The helmet was almost exactly the same but the body had been changed. Plates of armour covered the chest and shoulders as well as a plate of carbon fiber on the elbows. The gloves were smaller than Hiro's and had carbon fiber lined along the knuckles. Thighs, shins, and knees were covered, and the boots looked thin and strong like the gloves.

"I like it, but one thing." Hiro's smile faded slightly and his shoulders tightened in worry.

"What's that?"

"Why does it have to be green?"

"Because you wear a lot of green!" Hiro defended.

"Yeah but superheroes don't wear..." Tadashi gestured wildly at the design, struggling to name the colour. "... Olive green."

"Well what colour do they wear?" Hiro challenged.

"Orange, superheroes definitely wear orange." Tadashi decided.

Hiro threw him a dry look. "You are so unoriginal."

"Hey!" Hiro changed the colour anyway and sent the design to the 3D printer.

The boys waited impatiently as, piece by piece, Tadashi's armour was printed, sanded, and put in place.

Finally, with a muffled click, Tadashi snapped his helmet into place and spread his arms.

"Well?" He asked. "How do I look?"

Hiro gave him a once over with his hand pressed to his chin. “You know… you were right. Superheroes do wear orange.”

Tadashi laughed as he looked down at himself, taking in the armour.

“Okay, come on take it off! We have to get the tech in there for the force fields!” Hiro bounded over to Tadashi, reached up, and snatched his helmet.

"Whoa hey slow down!" Tadashi tried but Hiro was already across the room and holding the helmet upside down on a workbench.

“We’ll start with the easy stuff, like getting your intercom put in and your map programmed into your visor, then we’ll start working on the force fields.”

Tadashi removed his armour and quickly slipped back into his regular clothes while Hiro was distracted. He brought the pieces to the workbench then turned to his little brother. Hiro was bent over the helmet, intently working on it with a screwdriver in hand. Tadashi placed a hand on his shoulder watching as Hiro wired the intercom into the helmet with deft hands.

“Hey, Hiro? You okay here on your own for a bit? There’s something I have to take care of.”

Hiro turned around, looking at Tadashi with raised eyebrows.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s nothing, I just have to go find something out. You stay here and work on the armour, okay?” Hiro frowned, and turned slowly back to his work. Tadashi hoped that Hiro would understand and let him go. He needed something answered, and he wanted to do it alone.

“Okay… well don’t take too long though. It won’t take me long to get everything all finished up here.” Tadashi let out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding.

“Of course kiddo, I’ll be back before you know it!” Tadashi started for the door to the lab.

“Hey, don’t call me that!”

Tadashi shook his head fondly as he waved over his shoulder.

\---------------

Tadashi knocked on Abigail’s door, wondering if he could walk right in or if he should wait for her to answer. He decided to play it safe and wait on the doorstep.

He thought about what he would say to her when she answered the door. Hiro had filled him in on a lot of the things he had missed after the fire. The Big Hero 6 team, Robert Callaghan taking the microbots, and Hiro starting university just to name a few. But one question still nagged at the back of his mind. It was the one thing Hiro, or any of his friends couldn’t answer for him: How _had_ he survived the fire?

Something wasn’t adding up right. People didn’t just run in to burning, exploding buildings, and then wake up somewhere else a few months later without a scratch. Something was missing in the equation, and the only other person who might be able to fill in that missing piece was Robert Callaghan. If Tadashi thought hard enough back to the fire, he could just remember seeing Callaghan look at him through the smoke before everything went white.

He had to know _something._

Abigail opened the front door, and Tadashi looked up from his thoughts to her. She opened her mouth to say something but Tadashi beat her to it.

“Abigail, I need to ask you something important.”

“Okay, sure, come in.” Abigail moved aside to let Tadashi in. “You don’t have to knock while you’re staying here. You can just come in if you want.”

“Thank you, I need to ask you something about your father.” Tadashi cut right to the chase, not wasting time with any formalities.

Abigail’s expression became faintly guarded, “Okay… what do you need to know?”

Tadashi noticed the cagey look in her eyes and tried to slow down. He realized he had gotten a bit too excited in his pressing need for an answer.

“Sorry, I got a bit carried away. Hiro has explained to me everything that happened while I was in cryosleep, but I still don’t know _how_ I survived the fire. I was hoping to talk to you father, because he’s the only person who might know what happened.” Tadashi took a deep breath and hoped Abigail would understand.

Abigail for her part looked much more relaxed than she had when Tadashi had first burst into the kitchen.

She smiled gently, “Okay, what do you need to know?”

“I want to know what prison he’s in so I can speak to him.”

Abigail nodded, “Of course, he’s being held in San Fransokyo County Jail on 7th.” Her voice was thick.

“Thank you, Abigail. This really means a lot to me,” Tadashi reached for her in an aborted gesture and dropped his hand in favour of nodding his thanks. He turned to leave.

As quickly as he came, he was gone again, back out on the street and making his way to the prison as fast as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Yes on time! I was worried haha) Hello again I'm back! I don't really have too much to say about this chapter except it was edited and fixed while I was at my swimming championship (which I did awesome in!) so I'm very very sorry if there are any mistakes in this chapter. If you find any please tell me so I can fix them. 
> 
> Also, thank you very much to everyone who has commented and favourited or followed. It really means a lot to me and I'm just a giant nerd who sits at her computer screaming at all the lovely comments you guys have left. So thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
> 
> Other than that, swimming is all done now and I think I'm caught up in school work so next update should be soon! Enjoy!


	12. Ikari

The glaring fluorescent lights seemed to drain the colour out of everything in the room. There wasn't really much colour to begin with, dirty white walls and dark grey chairs being the only features of the room, but the clothes that the occupants of the room wore seemed washed out and drab. Even the garish orange prison jumpsuits appeared dull in the lighting.

The whole building was just depressing Tadashi decided. He sat in the visitor room, in front of a glass panel across from an empty chair. Two other prisoners were in the room with their visitors and one woman was softly weeping at the end of the line of cubicles. Just being here for a few minutes was sucking all the happiness out of him, Tadashi couldn't imagine being an inmate here.

The door on the other side of the glass clicked open and a prison guard walked in. He moved to Tadashi's cubicle and picked up the phone. Tadashi mirrored him and picked up his own phone.

"Tadashi Hamada?" The guard asked crisply.

"Yeah, that's me,"

"Prisoner 10642, Robert Callaghan will see you now."

Tadashi nodded as the officer got up and walked back to the door. Not thirty seconds had passed and the door was opening again, revealing two different guards on either side of Robert Callaghan.

If he hadn't been expecting his former professor, Tadashi wouldn't have recognized him. His hair had become shaggier and a more dull grey. Sunken, lifeless eyes looked out from pale skin. He was thinner and seemed to have lost all the life in him. Tadashi shuddered as he remembered how depressing he had thought this place was when he first came in. Apparently it was more depressing in the inmates' cells and Callaghan was the evidence of that.

The guards sat Callaghan down in front of Tadashi.

"You've got 30 minutes," one of them said roughly.

Callaghan didn't respond, he only stared lifelessly at his former student. Tadashi picked up the phone again but words wouldn't come. He sat, quietly gaping at the almost stranger in front of him, the man he had once idolized, and wondered where to begin.

Callaghan mechanically picked up his own phone and spoke into the receiver.

"I assume you're here to find out what happened in the fire." His rasping voice grated unpleasantly against Tadashi's ears.

Tadashi nodded dumbly, words still escaping him.

"Why should I tell you? You're here now, alive, why do you care?"

That snapped Tadashi out of his stupor. Who did Callaghan think he was? After all he had done, all he had put Tadashi’s friends and family through, how could he even _think_ of not giving Tadashi any answers. Tadashi wanted to know, _deserved_ to know and he was determined to get his answers.

"Because I need closure. A good scientist keeps searching until they've answered all the questions. This is the last one I have." Tadashi felt anger tightening in his chest.

A thin smile tugged at Callaghan's lips. It only made him look more sickly and exhausted.

"Once a student, always a student." He shook his head and his smile morphed into a frown. "You're not going to like the answer."

Tadashi met his eyes. "Try me, there are a lot of answers I don't like. Like how you tried to kill my brother three times. Or how you started that fire to steal Hiro’s microbots after I trusted you with that information. Or how about how you have to take revenge for the loss of a loved one, but a fourteen year old _kid_ can learn that revenge is not the answer, and instead save everyone from being killed at your hand!"

Tadashi's voice had gotten louder and louder as he continued his accusations. He was breathing heavily, and when he finally looked away from Callaghan, he realised the other occupants were staring at him strangely and he had stood up out of his chair.

He sat back down and glared at Callaghan, waiting for his answer. He had once respected him, had even considered him a sort of father figure. After all he had done though, Tadashi’s respect was quickly dwindling to nothing. In a previous time, Tadashi wouldn’t have dared speak to Callaghan like that. Now though, he found he didn’t really care.

"I saved you, because I couldn't watch my best student die."

"Try again. You didn't save me because you knew I should have had a longer life, you saved me because you felt guilty." Tadashi sneered at Callaghan. "You did it because that's how you live with yourself, how you justify yourself. Sure you set fire to that building and almost killed me, you stole a kid’s invention, you were going to kill Krei, but you saved me and in your mind that’s a good deed. Then suddenly it makes all of your other actions okay."

"I was going to let you die! But I didn't, I saw you in the flames and thought I couldn't let you die. I've changed now, I regret my actions-"

"No you don't." Tadashi interrupted. "You only saved me so that when you got to your goal and harmed or killed or did whatever to Alistair Krei, you could tell yourself that at least you had saved me. You used me, one good deed for a bad one. Well let me tell you something _professor,_ you had to do a lot more bad deeds to make it to your ultimate one of revenge. You used me for your own gain, not for any feelings towards me."

Callaghan’s expression hardened and he scowled at Tadashi.

"If you already knew all the answers, why did you come here to ask me?" All niceties and defenses Callaghan had been putting up were suddenly gone.

"Because a good scientist seeks evidence to back up his hypothesis."

Tadashi and Callaghan glared at each other in silence for a few moments. Tadashi was absolutely seething. After all he had heard, he had feared that Callaghan had used him for himself. Knowing it was true though hurt a lot. His former idol, the man he respected, had only used him so he wouldn’t feel guilty about killing another man.

"How did you do it?" Tadashi bit out.

"Do what?"

"How did you save us from the fire? We should have died in there, no one could have survived that. So how are we here now?"

"Little Hiro's microbots are surprisingly fire resistant." Tadashi's eyes narrowed. "I grabbed the neurotransmitter and when the building exploded, I created a barrier around myself, protecting me from the flames. When I saw you in the fire, it wasn't too hard to use the extra microbots to shield you too. When we got out, you were unconscious but surprisingly unharmed. So I put you in cryosleep until I found another use for you."

"And what was my 'use' going to be?"

Callaghan's eyes got a malicious glint in them. "If Hiro Hamada wouldn't leave me alone, it would have been easy to break him using you. It's just a shame I was caught before I could do that."

Tadashi slammed the phone back onto its cradle and shoved away from the cubicle. How dare he, _how dare he._ If he had somehow been used against Hiro, it would have destroyed his little brother and he probably wouldn’t be able to recover. How dare he want to cause harm to such an innocent person.

He turned for the exit and didn't look back though he felt Callaghan's eyes burning into the back of his head. He couldn't believe how much he had changed. His professor had been such a good man, and now this man was downright _evil._

He slammed the door open, startling the officer on duty at the front desk.

"I'm done with Robert Callaghan, you can put him back in his cell." The officer scrambled to call the guards to take Callaghan away as Tadashi stalked out of the prison and into the street.

\---------------

"Don't stop, don't stop!" Gogo screamed.

Even though the team was out of the underground tunnels, that didn't mean they were out of danger. Everwraith's bots could easily follow them out and chase them down. They couldn't afford to stop running.

The team ran as long as they could. Rundown buildings and shady streets flashed by with no one paying particular attention to where they were going. Everyone simply had one thought on their mind: _run._

Legs burning, lungs screaming, the team finally slowed and rested. They ducked into a side alley, breathing heavily, and collapsed against the wall.

A few minutes passed with only the sounds of heavy breathing before Honey asked, “Do you think we’ve lost them?”

Wasabi responded with his own question, "Anyone have any idea where we are?"

Aunt Cass struggled to her feet and looked out the mouth of the alley. She turned back to the team looking pale and nervous.

"We're in Hunter's Point," she whispered.

Gogo froze. Hunter's Point had the reputation of one of the most dangerous places in San Fransokyo. Everyone tried their best to avoid the area, it was fraught with muggings, attacks, gangs, and worst of all, murder. The absolute last place Gogo wanted to be was a back alley in Hunter’s Point.

“No way, Hunter’s Point? This is like the part of the story where there heroes fight crime in the most dangerous part of the city!” Fred exclaimed.

“Fred, now is _not_ the time.” Wasabi warned.

“It could be worse guys,” Honey Lemon spoke up. “We’re in a group of five, it’s daytime, and we don’t really have much on us to steal.”

“Honey’s right, but we can’t look nervous. We need to be confident, look like we know where we’re going, and don’t make eye contact with anyone. I know the way back into downtown San Fransokyo,” Aunt Cass instructed as she chewed lightly on her nails.

Again she surprised the team. Picking locks, knowing how to act on the street, and knowing her way around Hunter’s Point was not something they had expected her to know. Gogo was beginning to suspect she had more in her background than she was letting on.

“But what about Hiro and Tadashi?” Honey asked. “We can’t just leave them there!”

“We still don’t know if they even are there, Honey Lemon.” Gogo reminded.

Wasabi looked at Aunt Cass, “I want to go look for them too, but it’s far too dangerous. We can’t go back, our best bet is to get back to the lab or somewhere and make a plan.”

Gogo could tell Aunt Cass was upset, but she looked like she was trying her best to keep it together.

“Let’s go then, I would like my boys back in one piece,” She quickly turned away to the street.

Wasabi and Gogo shared a look before following behind Fred and Honey Lemon. They seemed to silently agree that there was more to Aunt Cass than she had ever told any of them, but they wouldn’t press for answers. It was her story to share, and not their place to ask.

Walking down the road, they avoided the few pedestrians as best they could and huddled close together. They tried to look confident as they walked towards the towering skyscrapers of downtown San Fransokyo.

\---------------

The door to the lab slammed open, startling Hiro into dropping his tools. He had been working hard on Tadashi’s armour at his workbench for the past few hours and had been on a roll with his progress.

He turned and Tadashi was stalking into the lab towards the chair in front of the computer desk. He looked angry, Hiro had never seen him look so angry before. Even after Hiro had gotten them arrested for bot fighting, Tadashi hadn’t looked this furious. He hadn’t even said hello.

Hiro picked up his tools and gingerly set them aside on the workbench. He cautiously approached Tadashi, who was now sitting with his arms crossed, glaring at the code on the computer screen.

“Uh, hey Tadashi… Where’d you have to go?” Hiro let out a nervous breath of laughter, wondering if Tadashi would unleash his wrath upon him. One wrong move and Hiro probably wouldn’t hear the end of it.

“Nowhere Hiro, forget it,” he snapped.

Hiro’s eyebrows furrowed as the corners of his mouth fell into a frown. Even in their most spectacular childhood fights, Tadashi had never been so cold and short with him. In the short two-ish hours Tadashi had been gone, he had been replaced by a cold, uncaring imposter.

“Baymax?” Hiro called. He had hated the empty space left in the lab with Tadashi’s absence. He was painfully reminded of how alone he felt in the lab without Tadashi, and he hadn’t wanted to work in the suffocating silence any more. So he had activated Baymax from his backup charging station Hiro kept in the lab, and he had kept him company while Hiro worked on Tadashi’s armour.

“Yes, Hiro?” Baymax shuffled over to where Hiro was standing behind Tadashi.

“Can you scan Tadashi for me?” Hiro looked at the back of Tadashi’s head, worrying about what was bothering him so much.

“Scan complete. My sensors show that Tadashi is experiencing a marked increase in adrenaline levels, resulting in a heightened pulse, elevated blood pressure, and the constriction of blood vessels. This could be indicative of fear, or anger.” Baymax announced.

Tadashi rounded on them in the chair and looked like he was about to deliver a rant of epic proportions. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and let his head fall into his hands.

Hiro gave him a moment before quietly asking, “Tadashi?”

Hiro reached for Tadashi’s wrist just as Tadashi looked up tiredly at Hiro.

“I’m sorry Hiro. I’m okay, there’s nothing to worry about.” Tadashi’s voice was gentler now, and his eyes were softer.

Hiro dared to take a step toward Tadashi. He saw his brother slowly pushing away the mask of anger and coming back to the surface.

“Where did you go?” He asked again.

“Nowhere Hiro,” he repeated.

“An effective strategy for managing anger is communicating your feelings calmly to others,” Baymax suggested. Hiro had noticed Tadashi was being unusually cagey, and Baymax must have picked up on that too.

“Baymax is right Tadashi, you can tell me, it’s okay.”

Tadashi sighed and slumped down in his chair, swaying idly from side to side. He looked down at his hands and seemed to contemplate his answer, before looking back up at Baymax and Hiro.

“You shouldn’t be the one taking care of me Hiro, I’m the older brother, I should be looking after you.” Tadashi looked sad now, Hiro didn’t think that was much better than anger.

“Yeah, well you’ve taken care of me long enough, let me worry about you for a change.”

Tadashi nodded in resignation and told Hiro about his trip to see Callaghan.

“You actually went to _see_ that lunatic? What were you _thinking_ you bonehead!”

Tadashi lowered his eyes as he recognized words very similar to his own, from when Hiro was still bot fighting.

“I needed one more answer. I needed to know why he saved me too.”

Hiro grabbed a second chair and sat down backwards on it. Leaning on the back of the chair, he looked up at Tadashi and saw how upset he looked. His brows were drawn into a frown and his forehead crinkled with worry lines.

“Did he tell you?” Hiro breathed.

"Yeah, he said..." Hiro sat attentively waiting for Tadashi to finish his thought.

"He said he saved me because he didn't want to see his best student die," Tadashi wouldn't look up at Hiro.

Hiro studied Tadashi carefully and determined that he was still hiding things from him. Living with him for fourteen years had made him aware of Tadashi’s usual behaviour.

“I know you’re lying Tadashi, what did he really say?”

Tadashi blew out a breath and slumped further in his chair in defeat.

"You know me too well little bro," he grinned slightly then frowned again. "You're not going to like it."

"That man already lost my respect, what more could he possibly do?"

"He said he saved me so he could use me against you. I don't know how he planned to do that exactly, but he was going to destroy you Hiro, using me," he finished bitterly.

Hiro's eyes widened in disbelief. Apparently Callaghan still could do more to lose his respect. What kind of _monster_ would use someone like that?

Hiro shuddered, thinking of what could have happened. Tadashi was right, if he had found Tadashi under the kabuki mask, if Tadashi had been the one using the microbots, Hiro would have been broken beyond repair. He wouldn't have been able to fight Tadashi.

He felt anger bubbling up in his chest. He understood now why Tadashi had been so angry when he had first come in. Finding out you had been used was never a good feeling.

Hiro took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He wanted revenge for Tadashi all over again, but he knew that wasn't the answer. Baymax had taught him that, and he didn't want to stoop to Callaghan's level.

"He didn't though, did he? And now we're here, and we'll figure everything out right?" Hiro looked expectantly at Tadashi hoping to see any change in him.

“What happened to you over the last few weeks? It’s like you grew up all of a sudden,” Tadashi smiled.

Hiro glanced down, feeling his cheeks redden. It meant a lot to him knowing that Tadashi thought he had grown up, even just a little bit.

“Yeah, I guess. But Baymax helped me a lot too, right buddy?” Hiro turned and patted Baymax gently.

“You are my patient, Hiro. I will always be here for you,” Baymax finally spoke after quietly learning all he could from the brothers’ conversation.

Tadashi’s smile grew at Baymax’s words. Hiro noticed that he looked a lot less upset now. It sounded like the conversation was over. If Tadashi wanted to talk more later, he could, but now was the time to change the subject.

“Alright, alright, come here. I’ve almost got the tech for your armour down, but I think I need help with one thing.”

Tadashi stood up and looked at the workbench. “Alright, well let’s take a look at what you’ve got.”

He took a step, but before he could get any farther, Hiro’s arms were wrapped tightly around his middle and his head was pressed into his chest. Tadashi froze in surprise for a moment, before warmly returning the hug.

“What’s this for?” He asked.

“I’m glad you’re here, Tadashi.” Hiro murmured.

“I’m glad I’m here too, Hiro.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sweats nervously* hahah hey guys, yeah I said I'd be on time, but uh clearly that didn't happen. Life decided to come smack me upside the head and now I'm a bit behind. I have tests and university tours and a robotics competition coming up so I don't know if I will be on schedule but I think I should be able to manage once a week. 
> 
> The good news is, most of this is written it's just not edited so hopefully I won't be too long in updating (probably not monday though sorry!)
> 
> And now for this chapter. I actually REALLY enjoyed writing this one. There was something about it that was just a lot of fun to write so I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it! Of course all of Tadashi's 'symptoms' of anger I researched and should be pretty accurate and also Hunter's Point is a real place in San Francisco which is kinda unfortunately known for it's high crime rates (I think, I did quite a bit of research on that and that's what I came up with). And finally, movie trivia, San Fransokyo is actually based off of real maps of San Francisco and 'ikari' means anger in japanese according to a translate site I found.
> 
> And that's all, see you guys soon!


	13. The Best Laid Plans

“Alright, this is it. Superhero armour test number one.” Tadashi stood in the lab in full armour looking excited and a bit unsure.

Hiro was sure he had the tech right now. He had been having issues integrating the electric current into the armour without harming Tadashi but as soon as Tadashi had looked, he suggested lining the armour in a thin coat of a non-conductible material to protect him.

A test without the armour on later, and Hiro found that Tadashi’s suggestion had worked.

“What do I do?” Tadashi grinned.

“I dunno, I’ll throw something at you and you deflect it with your force fields.” Hiro threw the empty pop can he had been drinking from at Tadashi’s head.

A flash of pale blue light and the pop can was sent flying across the room in the opposite direction, straight towards where Hiro was sitting.

Hiro scrambled to get out of the way, falling off his chair with a crash.

“Hiro! Are you okay?” Tadashi rushed over to where Hiro was on the floor.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Hiro shot up and looked for something else to throw. “Let’s do it again!”

Tadashi laughed and stood up after Hiro. “What about the reinforced gloves? Wanna test those?”

“That’s coming! Just wait!” Hiro disappeared out of the lab for a moment and came back holding eight boards of wood.

“Were you ever able to break a board in karate?” He asked.

“I can only break through one,” Tadashi responded as he eyed the boards Hiro was holding.

“Okay, perfect. Let’s try eight,” Hiro smugly placed the boards between two chairs where Tadashi could cut through them. He stepped back with his hands on his hips and threw Tadashi a winning smile.

Tadashi looked doubtful, but walked up to the boards anyway and took position. He glanced at Hiro then counted, “One, two, three!” and struck the boards as hard as he could.

With a thunderous crack, all eight boards split and tumbled off the chair.

Hiro stood with his mouth hanging open as Tadashi turned and beamed at him.

“This is going to be sick!” Hiro snapped out of his shock and bounded over to Tadashi, holding out his fist for a fist bump. Tadashi gingerly tapped his knuckles against Hiro’s, wary of how strong he was in the armour, and pulled back his fist wiggling his fingers the way they always did together.

"Now let's go find our friends!"

The brothers grinned at each other and turned just as the door to the lab slammed open. In the doorway stood their friends and Aunt Cass, looking dirty and worn out. The brothers were silent for a moment as they stared at their family in the doorway.

"Well that was easy," Tadashi deadpanned, breaking the silence.

"Hello to you too," Gogo muttered as the team walked into the lab.

"Whoaaaa Tadashi!" Fred drawled, "You look like a real superhero!"

Tadashi glanced down at the armour and then looked at Fred.

"You think so?" He asked.

"You can be a part of Fred's Angels now!"

"I thought we were calling ourselves Big Hero 6." Gogo crossed her arms and cocked her head.

"Well yeah, but Fred's Angels sounds way more like a superhero team, like T _he Avengers_ or _Justice League,_ "

"Aunt Cass? Are you okay? Baymax, scan Aunt Cass." Hiro's voice sounded over the ongoing argument. The rest of the team turned to Aunt Cass who was sitting in a chair, with her elbows on the desk and her head in her hands. She looked tired and pale, but glanced up when she heard Hiro's concern.

"I'm okay sweetie," she smiled tiredly.

"Scan complete, my sensors indicate no life-threatening physical injuries however I am noticing signs of malnourishment and dehydration. I recommend a healthy meal as well as plenty of water." Baymax looked around at the rest of the team.

"Come on, we can get takeout. There's a good pizza place 5 minutes from here. Then we'll talk." Tadashi walked out of the lab, placing his helmet beside the computer. Everyone followed him out the door.

\---------------

The seven plus Baymax sat around a table in a small pizzeria amid several strange looks. Hiro had to admit they were an odd-looking group. Most of them were dirty and tired looking, all but Aunt Cass and Baymax were in armour, and, well, it wasn’t everyday a squishy vinyl robot walked into a pizzeria.

Hiro leaned forward and looked at the people he had started to consider his family.

"Alright guys, spill. What happened and how did you get out?"

"Oh oh! I can explain," Fred began. "We got captured by another supervillain. Then we escaped and found his evil plans. But he caught us again, but I saved us with a superjump-"

"Which was my idea," Honey interjected.

"Then we ran out from his underground lair and came all the way back here." Hiro looked at Fred, wondering if his version of the story was anywhere close to the truth. Fred tended to over exaggerate things a bit, and he always got excited over the superhero and supervillain stuff.

"Well he's not wrong," Wasabi said.

"If it was a bit... Condensed," Gogo added.

"Yeah but the _real_ superhero was your Aunt Cass," Honey announced.

Everyone turned to Aunt Cass who was trying to avoid everyone’s gaze by staring down at her hands. She looked slightly embarrassed and seemed to be trying to come up with a response.

"Aunt Cass...?" Tadashi gently prodded for an answer.

"Oh you know," she laughed nervously and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Just a bit of quick thinking is all." She waved her hand over her shoulder, trying to write her actions off as nothing special.

"Yeah, and mad skills!" Fred threw up his arms in excitement. He either chose to ignore Cass’s hints that she didn’t want to talk, or he missed them altogether. "Ms. Hamada knows how to pick locks and knows how to navigate through Hunter's Point!"

"Fred, timing," Gogo hissed and elbowed him in the side.

Hiro and Tadashi stared at their Aunt in shock. How could she know all of this? Maybe she could have figured out how to pick locks, but _Hunter's Point?_ How would she know her way around the shadiest part of San Fransokyo?

Tadashi was the first to find his voice.

"It's okay Aunt Cass. You don't have to say anything," he said.

Aunt Cass smiled at him and shook her head. Of course Tadashi would notice her discomfort and wouldn’t push for an answer. "No no, it’s nothing spectacular really. Just some trouble I got into when I was a teenager. You know, Hiro, your father was into bot fighting just like you."

"No way!" Hiro's eyes lit up and he grinned at Tadashi. "See? It runs in the family, you can't blame my bot-fighting habits entirely on me."

"It doesn't matter knucklehead, you still did it and I still saved your sorry butt over and over." Tadashi reached over to Hiro who let out an indignant _hey!_ as Tadashi mussed his hair.

They turned their attention back to Aunt Cass.

"When we were younger, we didn't have much money which meant no money for parts. So your father and I learned how to pick the locks on shops so we could just take everything we needed. We never took more than one or two things from every shop, so we learned a lot about different kinds of locks. After your father had built his first battle bot, we took it out to test it. He was a natural at it, and we won almost every fight."

At this Hiro snickered and elbowed Tadashi in the arm.

"We kept moving up and winning more money and fighting in the shadier parts of town. I never fought myself, but I was always there cheering. Eventually we were scared out of it though. A few months of Hunter's Point and that was it. We were in a battle, all was going well and we won, but the other kid wasn't too happy about that. He cornered us on the way home, scared the daylights out of us when he pulled a knife. And that was the end of that. Your father kicked him hard and we ran all the way home. We never went bot fighting again." Aunt Cass finished her story and glanced around at the stunned faces looking back at her around the table. Everyone was paying rapt attention to her story, learning something they never would have believed about her unless it came from her own mouth.

"Is it really that bad?" Aunt Cass brought her fingers to her lips and worried at her nails.

"No of course not!" Honey quickly reassured. "It’s just, you're so _nice_ for a previous bot-fighter."

"Hey! And I'm not?" Hiro pouted at Honey Lemon, earning a laugh from Tadashi.

"You don't look like a bot fighter because you're too short and too cute looking. Sorry little man," Wasabi leaned back and laughed as Hiro sputtered for a response.

"Wasabi's right, Hiro. You're far too cute looking to be a bot fighter," Tadashi teased.

"Oh this is so not fair," Hiro thunked his forehead against the table as everyone laughed at his reaction.

Finally, the pizza arrived, silencing the group and leaving them to their own thoughts for a few minutes. Hiro marveled at the fact that his father had been a bot fighter too. He had built his own battle bots, just like Hiro and had gotten into trouble just like him too. It was too bad he didn't have a big brother to rescue him from danger as well.

Hiro couldn't believe that Aunt Cass had been in on it too. She was smart, but she had never been big on the technology side of things, so it came as a bit of a shock that she had - sort of - been a bot fighter too. Hiro supposed it was a good thing though. She had gotten herself and all of his friends back safe and sound.

"Alright back to business, this guy Everwraith is still running rampant and seems bent on destroying San Fransokyo." Gogo spoke up as she finished her pizza.

"Fred said you guys found his plans didn't he? What did you guys find out?" Everyone's attention turned to Tadashi.

"We got the areas he's planning to attack as well as the dates. He said it wasn't all of his plans, but if we have that we already have a head start." She responded.

"So where's he attacking then?" Hiro asked.

"I'm pretty sure he's aiming for the financial district next. Tomorrow." Wasabi warned.

"Tomorrow?! We've gotta stop him!" Hiro's voice rose drawing the attention of the other customers.

"Shhh, Hiro, not so loud," Cass warned.

"Hiro is right though, we have to stop him." Honey Lemon looked around the table.

"Yeah, but how? Last time we tried to do that five of us were kidnapped and the other three were left with nowhere to go." Wasabi tried to avoid mentioning the fire, but Hiro could tell that was what he meant.

"We could make a shrink ray, shrink all his robots, and crush them with our feet."

"Fred, we already told you a shrink ray isn't very scientific," Gogo reminded him.

"What about an EMP that'll make all his robots useless?"

Everyone stared at Fred in shock. Had he really just suggested something that might actually work?

"You know... That is actually a really good plan," Wasabi agreed.

"Alright, but first things first, we need our suits fixed and we need a place to stay. Fred?" Gogo raised an eyebrow at Fred, silently asking if they could use his house again.

"Oh yeah, this'll be like our base of operations. Big Hero 6 HQ. This is gonna be awesome people!" Fred shot out of his chair as everyone followed his lead.

Aunt Cass paid for the pizza (she insisted it was on her) and the team was out the door, ready to put their plan into action and fight for San Fransokyo.

\---------------

"And if we just tweak it here, that should make the electromagnetic field strong enough to wipe out a good chunk of the robots." Hiro held out a dully shining metallic sphere.

After setting up at Fred's house, the team had gone back to the robotics lab. Aunt Cass had stayed behind claiming she had loads of phone calls to make, one to Abigail included.

Baymax had suggested everyone stay and rest, but they knew they were working against the clock. Everwraith was going to attack the next day, and the team had to get all of their suits repaired, as well as create the EMP they were going to use.

Finally, in the early hours of the morning, Hiro had finished it.

Fred looked carefully at the baseball sized sphere in Hiro's hand.

"Is that really going to wipe out all the bots?" He said.

Hiro nodded and placed the EMP onto the desk.

"Awesome," Fred nodded, imagining how perfectly it would work.

"We have to be careful though," Tadashi warned. "The EMP is going to affect us too. Like Wasabi, your lasers are going to be useless if you're caught in range."

As they had been fixing everyone's tech, Tadashi had quickly learned what everyone could do. He had been impressed by what they had put together in only a few short weeks.

"Tadashi's right and Baymax will be the most affected. We need to stay as far away as possible when that thing goes off." Honey agreed.

"So how are we gonna do this then?" Gogo tilted her head and looked right at Hiro. "Any ideas genius?"

"Of all of us, I would probably be the least affected. I can set a timer, run in and plant the EMP then run out before it goes off. If I'm too late, it's not too bad because I don't have the same tech you guys do." Hiro knew the magnets in his armour that kept him on Baymax would be affected, but that would be nothing compared to how badly the rest of the team would be affected.

"No. Absolutely not." The team turned to Tadashi.

"What? Why? What's wrong with that plan?" Hiro asked.

"What's wrong with it? Oh I don't know, maybe the part where you walk into a _war zone all alone?!_ You're fourteen, Hiro! I'm not letting you go in there alone!"

"Well what else are we supposed to do?" Hiro countered. "Everyone else will be defenseless if they get caught in the radiation, I'm the only one who has a chance."

"But what if you get hurt, what if Everwraith shows up and kidnaps you? What if he kills you?" Tadashi was pleading now, begging Hiro not to put himself in danger.

"If I don't go in there, Tadashi, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people are going to be killed. Someone has to help." Tadashi froze and finally gave in when Hiro echoed his own words.

"Okay... Just be careful. Please." Tadashi's shoulders slumped in defeat. Hiro felt bad. He had used Tadashi's own thinking against him, but he had no choice. San Fransokyo was depending on him.

"I will, I've got this." Hiro smiled, hoping to reassure Tadashi.

"Now that we've got that out of the way, anyone else have any suggestions?" Gogo brought the team's attention back to their plan.

"We have to get as many people out of the area as possible. If anyone has any kind of technology on them, a pacemaker, some kind of electronic prosthetics, they could get seriously harmed when we set off the EMP." Wasabi made a good point. Any technology that was in range would be ruined, including the kind that kept people alive.

"We can call the anonymous crime stoppers line. I think they're our best bet. If we tell them what's going to happen, they'll probably take it pretty seriously." Honey Lemon said.

Tadashi nodded. "The more people we can get away from there, the better. I can make the call right now."

"Good idea," Honey agreed. "The earlier we call, the more likely they'll be able to get everyone out."

Tadashi left the room, grabbing his cell phone off the workbench. Hiro could hear his quiet murmurs from the other side of the door as he spoke to the operator.

"We'd better get some sleep guys. We'll need the energy for tomorrow." Sometimes Wasabi was like a second Baymax for the team. If Baymax wasn't there to recommend the best way to take care of themselves, Wasabi was the next best thing.

Hiro nodded, suddenly feeling tired. It was nearly three in the morning and if they were going to have any hope of stopping Everwraith, they needed to have some energy.

At that moment Tadashi stepped back into the room and ended his call. Everyone looked expectantly at him, hoping for good news.

"I think they're gonna evacuate," he looked tiredly at the phone. "It took a bit of convincing but I think they believed me. I had enough of your story to give them enough information."

"You did all you can, Tadashi. Let's go home now." Honey Lemon placed her hand on Tadashi's shoulder and turned him back towards the door.

Hiro grabbed the EMP and tucked it close to his side. He couldn't risk losing it, or worse, having it fall into the wrong hands. Hiro followed everyone out of the lab and shut off the lights as he closed the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'll admit I stretched technology a liiiiiittle bit here. But I think I'm allowed to do that since it's set in the future and they kinda did it in the movie too. Enjoy!


	14. Often Go Astray

"Hiro? Are you almost done?" Tadashi nervously paced the alley between two buildings as he waited for Hiro to plant the EMP. Everyone was stationed around the financial district, waiting for Everwraith's attack. They hoped at least one of them would find where he was coming from from their vantage point.

"I'm fine Tadashi, relax," Hiro's voice crackled over the intercom. "I'm setting the detonator now and there's no one in sight."

"Just remember, you'll have ten minutes to get to safety before Gogo can set it off."

"He knows the plan Tadashi, we've been over it four hundred times," Gogo interrupted.

"Breathe, Tadashi! Hiro will be fine." Honey added.

Tadashi knew Hiro could take care of himself pretty well. He hadn't gotten himself killed while Tadashi had been gone, and he seemed to have matured in that time too. What Tadashi worried about was his mental state and recent panic attacks. Baymax had told him Hiro hadn't had any until the cafe had been burned, so Tadashi knew he would still be learning how to deal with it.

Tadashi wasn't just worried about whether Hiro would be unharmed or not, what if he had an attack when he was still in the radiation zone? No one would be able to help him, it would be far too dangerous. Hiro would be all alone.

"Come on Hiro..." He muttered to himself.

A moment later and Hiro's disembodied voice sounded over the intercom again.

"Alright it's set. I'm on my way out. When I reach Baymax we'll fly above the city and try to see if Everwraith is coming."

Tadashi shifted his weight from foot to foot, restlessly waiting for Hiro to report his safety.

"Does anyone else feel that?" Wasabi sounded nervous in Tadashi's ear.

Tadashi stopped moving long enough to feel a rumbling under his feet. _An earthquake?_ He wondered. In all his years he had only been through one memorable earthquake, and even then it hadn't done too much serious damage.

Suddenly, across the street a manhole cover popped out of the ground with a startling clang. Tadashi jumped as the unexpected noise reached his ears.

His mouth dropped open in shock as, one by one, the bots emerged from the sewers under the city.

Tadashi shook himself. He had to warn everyone else. He had to warn Hiro who still hadn't said he was out of the EMP's range.

"Whoa... Does anyone else see the bots coming out of the ground, or is that just me?" Fred drawled over the intercom.

"Yeah, we've noticed Fred. Stay hidden, we need to let them get to the radiation zone." Gogo was level-headed as always, unlike Tadashi who was getting more and more worried about Hiro's wellbeing.

"Hiro?"

"I'm almost out Tadashi! Hang on!" Hiro sounded frantic which did nothing to calm Tadashi down. The knot that had been forming in his stomach grew tighter and he was choked with apprehension.

"Hiro, at the rate you are moving now, you will not make it out in time. Would you like me to come and get you?" Baymax added his voice for the first time over the intercom. Hiro had left him outside of the EMP radius so his programming wouldn't be destroyed too.

"No! Baymax don't move, you'll be destroyed if you come anywhere near here." Hiro huffed, out of breath.

"Hiro? Where are you what's going on?" Tadashi couldn't stay quiet anymore.

"I'm fine, don't move!"

"Hiro, I can come get you. I'll leave my purse behind and nothing else will be affected." Honey sounded worried now too.

"Guys, everything is in position. If we don't set off the EMP now we'll lose our chance." Gogo was monitoring the streets through the city security feeds that she had connected into her helmet visor.

"Do it! I'm fine, don't miss our chance!" Hiro shrieked.

“We’ll come find you, Hiro,” Gogo promised.

Tadashi heard the muted beep over her intercom as the electromagnetic pulse was detonated. Everything went eerily quiet as the electric grids in the financial district were wiped out. Tadashi had never realized just how _loud_ San Fransokyo was. It was all background noise to him, but now that it was gone, the silence was overwhelming.

“Hiro!” Tadashi ran out of the alley he was hiding in and onto the street. Further into the district, hundreds of bots littered the ground, their electronics fried by the EMP.

“He can’t hear you, Tadashi. His comm unit would have been destroyed along with his tracker. He’s pretty much invisible to us,” Gogo reminded him.

“I can scan for Hiro to locate him faster,” Baymax suggested gently.

“Yes! Just do it!” Tadashi hated not having contact with Hiro. He hadn’t exactly sounded calm the last time he had spoken over the intercom, Tadashi had no idea how he was now.

“Scan complete. Hiro is approximately five hundred metres north of where I am,” Baymax announced.

Tadashi pulled up the map in his visor and located Baymax’s red dot. From where he was, Hiro was farther from him than he was from Baymax.

“Go find him Baymax, you’re closest.” Tadashi switched off the map and his comm unit and started running for where Baymax had estimated Hiro was.

_I’m coming for you Hiro, I won’t give up on you._

\-----------------------

_I’m not going to make it._ Hiro frantically turned in a circle on the spot, looking for a clear path out of the district. Bots that had appeared from nowhere were coming at him from all sides. Hiro was surrounded, the only way out was up, but there was no way Hiro was going to risk Baymax in the radiation zone.

“Hiro?” Tadashi’s voice crackled over the intercom, an octave too high.

“I’m almost out Tadashi! Hang on!” Hiro tried to reassure him, but his voice was frustratingly panicked. He tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down as the bots drew closer with every second.

"Hiro, at the rate you are moving now, you will not make it out in time. Would you like me to come and get you?"

_Timing Baymax._ Baymax was only trying to help, but that would do nothing to help Tadashi. Hiro told him to stay away as his panic threatened to consume him and took his breath away.

_Not now, why now?_ Hiro pressed his hands to the side of his helmet and squeezed his eyes shut. His friends spoke in his ear and he responded with half a mind, continually telling them to stay away.

"Guys, everything is in position. If we don't set off the EMP now we'll lose our chance." Gogo’s level voice calmed Hiro slightly and allowed him to think for a moment.

“Do it! I’m fine don’t miss our chance!” Hiro had no choice. The bots had him surrounded with nowhere to go. If they didn’t set off the EMP, he would be overwhelmed in only a few seconds and probably wouldn’t make it out.

With a final promise, Hiro could hear Gogo detonating the device over her intercom before the wires sparked in his ear. He was forced to yank his helmet off as the short circuiting electrical wires burned his skin. Sparks flew from exposed wires around Hiro, and the few lights in shop windows flickered and went dark. Hiro felt a small weight lift when he remembered the district had been evacuated.

Around him, the bots lurched violently and dropped like flies. Their circuitry was no match for the electromagnetic radiation.

After what felt like hours but was only seconds, the last bot fell and everything went silent. Without the steady hum of electricity in the city, it was uncomfortably silent. Hiro had to scuff his hands and feet against the pavement where he was sitting to settle the nerves he was getting from the quietness.

He had no way to contact anyone now. His comm unit was fried, and his holographic map was useless now. He wouldn’t be able to find his friends, so he figured his best shot was to stay put and wait for them.

Finally, a _whoosh_ broke the silence and Baymax landed gently in front of Hiro.

“Hiro, are you alright?” Baymax tilted his head as he scanned Hiro, looking for any serious injuries.

Hiro let out a breath. Baymax had listened and stayed away, he was still okay. Hiro hadn’t realized how much he had been worrying about that until Baymax had landed in front of him.

“Yeah, I’m alright buddy.” Hiro pushed himself up and stumbled towards Baymax.

“Your heart rate and blood pressure levels are elevated, and your breathing is irregular. You may be about to experience another panic attack.” Baymax was right, Hiro was desperately trying to push down the panic that was threatening to bubble up his throat. Baymax was good at seeing through Hiro’s lies.

“What am I gonna do Baymax? How am I going to fight this Everwraith guy if I can’t even control how I’m feeling?” Hiro rested his head against Baymax’s arm, the last few days finally catching up with him.

Tadashi had come back, and everything was supposed to be better. Then it all came crashing down around him. He lost his home, his friends, his family. Everwraith was systematically wiping out San Fransokyo for who knew what reason and everyone was depending on Hiro to stop him. He couldn’t handle the stress of it and he couldn’t handle the panic that threatened to consume him if he couldn’t calm himself down in time.

Hiro ran a hand through his messy hair, and felt tears burn down his cheeks.  He felt Baymax try to wrap an arm around his shoulders as he cried. It was awkward with the armour, but Hiro felt better knowing Baymax was still there, was still his friend. In the farthest reaches of his mind he had worried that Baymax would only care about Tadashi now that he was back. Tadashi had invented him after all, so why wouldn’t he favour him?

“It will be okay Hiro. You are my patient, and my friend, I will always be with you,” Baymax gently reassured Hiro.

Hiro drew a shuddering breath and felt his chest warm at Baymax’s words. He remembered when Baymax had shown him the recordings of Tadashi’s tests. Baymax was his friend, he would take care of him not only because that was what he was programmed to do, but because somehow in his robot heart, he genuinely cared for Hiro.

Hiro took a step back and smiled his gap-toothed smile up at Baymax.

“Thank you, Baymax.” He meant it.

“Hiro!” Hiro turned as Tadashi skidded around the corner. He doubled over with his hands on his knees, catching his breath.

“Told you I’d be fine,” Hiro tried to make light of the situation, hoping he would get out of the trouble he knew he was in with Tadashi.

“You bonehead, you could have died! Why didn’t you tell us you were surrounded? We could have done _something._ ” Tadashi covered his eyes and forehead with his hand and wiped it down his face. He looked up to the sky, and appeared to question his existence.

Hiro opened his mouth to respond but at that moment, Gogo rounded the corner at full speed and came to a stop.

She nodded when she saw Hiro, not needing to say anything to see that he was okay.

“Well, now what do we do?” Hiro looked back at Tadashi who was walking towards where Hiro was standing.

“As far as we know Everwraith hasn’t made his appearance yet so we need to be careful. We have no idea what he’s capable of doing still and we have no idea where he’ll come from.” Gogo fell silent as she listened to something someone was saying in her helmet. Hiro hated not knowing what they were saying, he was supposed to be their leader and now he couldn’t talk to anyone unless they were standing right in front of him.

“Hey, you okay?” Tadashi had apparently noticed Hiro’s annoyance.

“Yeah, just wish I could talk to everyone too.” Tadashi gripped Hiro’s shoulder as whoever was speaking on the intercom kept talking. Hiro could hear the faint, tinny voice and Tadashi’s grip tightened partway through a sentence.

“What? What’s going on, what’s wrong?” Hiro felt left out, Tadashi was looking around them worriedly and Hiro had no idea why.

“We need to get out of here now.” Tadashi steered Hiro back towards where he had come around the corner.

“Why? What’s happening?” Hiro half-shouted, starting to worry now too.

Gogo skated up to Hiro and fell in beside him. “Honey and Wasabi are saying the ground is rumbling again where they are. Fred said that he’s already seen more bots coming out of the sewers.”

“Wait, the sewers? That’s where they’re coming from?” It made sense, it was actually pretty smart. What better way to move an entire army, practically unnoticed, through a city than underground? And with the army being robots, there wouldn’t be any complaining either.

“A better question would be _how many robots does this guy have?_ ” Tadashi ground out. He pulled Hiro along faster and faster until they were running through the empty streets.

Hiro could feel the ground rumbling underneath him. He looked back to where they came from, making sure Baymax was following too. He was, trailing a few metres behind them as fast as he could.

The four of them rounded a building and were met with a wall of robots, rushing straight for them.

“Run! Go the other way!” Gogo shrieked and they turned and ran up the street in the opposite direction.

Hiro couldn’t run fast enough. He was tired, tired from lack of sleep, tired from trying to stay calm. Tadashi and Gogo got ahead of him as his legs weakened and turned to jelly beneath him. He tried to keep running, but only a few steps further and Hiro tripped over his own feet, and fell hard to the ground.

The bots rushed forward, surrounding Hiro. They pressed in close, he couldn't move his arms or legs. Baymax was nowhere to be seen and Hiro could hear Tadashi screaming his name.

He waited out the wave, covering his head and trying to protect himself the best he could. He didn’t have his helmet, he had left it behind in the street, and his armour wouldn’t do much good against this many bots.

After a while of bot after bot passing by, Hiro realized the bots weren't harming him at all. Not a scratch or a bruise was on him, the bots only passed by and moved on.

Finally, the last of them passed and Hiro was left sitting alone in the middle of the road. Why hadn't the bots hurt him? What was going on?

As the adrenaline wore off, Hiro felt something pressing against the inside of his ear. He reached up to feel what it was and then his vision went white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the elusive author is back! Sorry for the wait everyone, last week was hectic. I had a huge robotics competition and I missed school and I was trying to catch up on homework, but here I am now! Hope you liked it!


	15. Gone But Not Forgotten

"Hiro! Hiro are you okay?" Tadashi rushed for Hiro with Gogo hot on his heels. When he had seen the army of bots overtake Hiro, he had feared the worst. They had been having enough trouble fighting them off together, what chance did Hiro stand alone?

Now though, Hiro stumbled to his feet in the middle of the road, looking completely unharmed but for the look of shock on his face.

Hiro looked up, brows scrunched and reaching for his ear. Suddenly, his body twisted violently and he fell back to his knees.

"Hiro!" Both Tadashi and Gogo scrambled forward to catch Hiro.

Hiro was slowly getting his footing again, holding his head.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Tadashi was breathless with worry.

Hiro stood silently, eyes to the road, with his hands dropping limply to his sides. Slowly, he looked up at Tadashi and Gogo with a blank expression.

“Hiro…?” Gogo waved a hand in front of his face, but he didn’t respond.

“Hiro what’s wrong?” Tadashi reached to grab Hiro’s shoulder and in a flash, Hiro had Tadashi’s wrist in a vice grip.

“Tadashi!” Gogo responded by tackling Hiro and tearing him away from Tadashi.

Hiro fought back viciously, throwing his legs and arms everywhere trying to get a hit in. Gogo was faster though and quickly had Hiro pinned to the rough asphalt.

“Hiro, what is your problem?” Gogo screamed at Hiro as he struggled under her grip.

“Get off me! Hiro isn’t here anymore!” Gogo’s grip loosened in her surprise at Hiro’s words. Hiro struggled harder and was able to roll away out of her reach.

Tadashi stood beside Gogo as she got off the ground. He was looking at Hiro in fear and distress. Why would he just attack Gogo like that? He wouldn’t, and Tadashi had no idea what was going on.

“Hiro? It’s me, it’s Tadashi.” Tadashi cautiously took a few steps toward Hiro, holding his hands non-threateningly in front of him.

Gogo watched behind Tadashi as Hiro took a few steps back and sneered at them. “I told you, Hiro is gone.”

Tadashi’s expression crumpled and he stopped moving.

“Then where is he?”  He asked. His voice was smaller than usual.

“I took him away,” an elated voice sounded behind Gogo and Tadashi and they whipped around, finding Everwraith gleefully grinning behind them.

“What did you do to him?” Tadashi balled his fists and stepped threateningly towards the taller man. He felt nothing but contempt for this man who had caused Hiro so much pain.

“Oh just a new little experiment I’m trying out.” Everwraith inspected his nails nonchalantly. He ignored Tadashi’s glare as he continued, “I had always wondered if mind control would work, and little Hiro was my first test subject! As you can see, it’s going brilliantly.” Everwraith spread his arms towards Hiro like a magician showing off his latest trick, then beckoned the boy forward.

Hiro went stiff for a moment then followed his orders and moved towards Everwraith’s outstretched arms.

“Hiro, no! What are you doing?” Tadashi tried to block Hiro from continuing on but Hiro violently shoved him out of the way. Tadashi tripped and lost his balance, ending up on the ground. Hiro didn’t seem to care at all.

“See? Perfect,” Everwraith grinned as he draped his arm around Hiro’s shoulder.

“You and I are going to have so much fun together,” Everwraith pulled Hiro close and gestured to the bots slowly surrounding him.

“In the meantime, destroy them.” Everwraith swept his hand toward Tadashi and Gogo who were standing in shock, watching as Hiro compliantly followed Everwraith away.

The bots charged forward, breaking the two of them out of their haze. Tadashi tried to jump forward, reaching desperately for Hiro and calling his name, but the bots overtook him, blocking his path.

“Tadashi!” Gogo yelled. “A little help here?” A throng of bots surrounded her and she was looking overwhelmed.

Tadashi was torn, go after Hiro or help Gogo? He glanced back and forth between his brother and his friend. He couldn’t make the decision, he couldn’t choose between them. The bots pressed in closer and Tadashi punched them away the best he could. His shots were sloppy and slow, and soon the bots had him backed up against the wall.

Tadashi reached up and found his cheeks were wet with tears. Gogo had found her way beside him and gently grabbed his forearm.

“Hey, we’ll find him,” she soothed. “But right now we need to get out of here. We can’t save him if we don’t make it out of this.”

Tadashi nodded and brought his fists up to take out the bots. They could use the wall to their advantage, no bots could come up behind them. The pair fought their way through the bots, but they were endless. He felt fine now, but Tadashi knew that soon he and Gogo would reach their limit while the robots would just keep going.

“This isn’t working, they just keep coming!” Tadashi called over the sound of crunching metal.

“Then what do you suggest?” Gogo took a step back, trying to remove herself from the fight and catch her breath.

“Baymax,” Tadashi hadn’t seen Baymax with Hiro before he had been taken, but he knew the robot had followed them. He had to be somewhere around.

Tadashi turned on his intercom and called for help.

Seconds later, a giant red fist crashed into the wall, three feet from Tadashi’s head.

“Holy-!” Tadashi clambered out of the way, activating his force field and covering his head.

He looked up and Baymax was standing at the end of a cleared path through the robots.

“I was alerted by your sound of distress, how can I help, Tadashi?” Baymax tilted his head, looking like he plowed through crowds of evil robots every day before breakfast.

“We could use a bit more robot smashing, what do you think, Gogo?” Tadashi grinned weakly and glanced at Gogo.

“Robot smashing sounds good,” she responded as she tossed a disk and took out another line of robots.

Baymax stood up straighter and looked around at the robots that were surrounding him again. In a flash, Baymax seemed to spring forward, his leg spinning through the air and taking out the bots in a domino effect.

“Roundhouse,” Baymax stood up straight again and looked at Tadashi.

Tadashi shook his head and thought of Hiro. _So much for a huggable healthcare robot._ Of course Hiro would ‘upgrade’ him into a fighting robot the first chance he got. That was exactly like him, everything had to be Hiro’s definition of awesome, which usually involved quite a bit of destruction. Like the rocket boots Hiro had strapped on to Mochi one night which had backfired and left them with a shattered window and a very angry cat. Needless to say, Aunt Cass hadn’t been too impressed either.

Tadashi’s stomach dropped as he thought of what had happened to Hiro and where he could be now.

He turned his attention back to the fight. Robots were closing in on him again, backing him closer and closer to the wall. He snapped his foot out, pushing back the bots and giving himself more room to breathe. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer. He could feel the fatigue creeping into his limbs and weighing them down. He needed to end this, fast.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught an explosion of pink and a troop of robots was instantly encased in a squishy-looking magenta substance. On the other end of the street, a flash of teal and a tongue of flame shot through the robots. Tadashi allowed himself a small smile. The rest of his friends were finally here to help.

Fighting towards each other, they took down as many robots as they could. The effort seemed futile though. It felt like for every robot they cut down, two more would come and take its place.

As Tadashi fought, he felt like he was being watched. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes boring into the back of head. Something made him turn around and look up. Standing on the top of the building and grinning maliciously down on the fight was Everwraith. Beside him, a smaller figure stood obscured in Everwraith’s shadow. _Hiro._

Something hard hit Tadashi in the side of the head. The world pitched sideways and the last thing he saw was Hiro and Everwraith turning away from the fight and disappearing behind the edge of the building.

\---------------

“Tadashi? Tadashi can you hear me?” Honey Lemon looked down worriedly at Tadashi. She had found him unconscious, slumped against the building and being assaulted by robots. Honey had fought them off, then called for Baymax to get them out of there.

“Tadashi?” She tried again as Tadashi stirred and slowly blinked awake.

“He’s waking up guys, look,” Wasabi commented over Honey’s shoulder, calling Fred and Gogo over to their little group. Honey could hear Baymax lean in closer to get a better look at Tadashi.

Tadashi groaned and quickly pressed his hand to his forehead. He squeezed his eyes shut and slowly pushed himself up to sitting.

“Whoa, whoa, slow down there man. You just woke up,” Wasabi crouched down and helped Tadashi steady himself.

“W-where are we?” Tadashi mumbled and squinted around himself.

“We took you back to Fred’s place, Baymax flew us here. I found you unconscious, and we were losing the fight so we all decided to get back to safety.” Honey decided not to bring up losing Hiro. Gogo had filled everyone in on what had happened with Hiro. Honey was worried about him and she knew Tadashi would have a fit when he found out Hiro was still missing.

“Baymax scan Tadashi,” Gogo ordered. She turned her attention back to Tadashi as Baymax quickly scanned him.

“My sensors indicate a mild abrasion on Tadashi’s forehead. I also found multiple contusions on his arms and legs. Tadashi will need immediate medical attention to prevent a concussion from the wound on his head.” Baymax sidled up next to Tadashi and began asking him multiple questions all at once.

“Are you experiencing severe head pain Tadashi? Are you having double vision, nausea, or dizziness?”

“No, no, I’m fine.” Tadashi slightly slurred his speech. Honey picked up on the soft syllables and looked concernedly at him.

Tadashi reached up and grabbed Baymax, pulling himself to standing. As he tried to take a step, he immediately stumbled, legs buckling underneath him. The group rushed forward to catch him, but Baymax was already holding Tadashi steady and helping him to balance himself.

“I believe you are lying to me, Tadashi. Your inability to walk indicates disorientation which could be symptoms of a concussion.” Tadashi looked up at Baymax in disbelief. Looking at him, Honey realized just how much had changed without Tadashi. They had all continued their lives without him, growing closer together and learning so much. Now that Tadashi was back, she almost felt guilty for moving forward, though she knew that was all she could do.

“I didn’t realize you knew so much Baymax,” Tadashi commented.

“Hiro has upgraded me and made me a better health care companion,” Baymax informed Tadashi.

Honey saw Tadashi pale at Baymax’s words and look around the room. His eyes widened when he didn’t see Hiro standing anywhere with them.

“Hiro…?” He breathed and turned to Honey with wide eyes.

Honey felt her heart stutter as she thought of what she had to tell Tadashi. Hiro was gone, and they had no idea where he was. They had no way of knowing if he was still alive and if he was, there was no telling what the mind control would do to him.

All Honey could do was shake her head sadly in a gesture of no.

Tadashi’s expression crumpled and tears welled in his eyes. He leaned his head against Baymax’s arm and pressed a hand to his eyes as a tear slipped down his cheek. Honey felt a bit uncomfortable. She had never seen Tadashi so upset before.

Fred walked up and seemed uncharacteristically gentle. He placed a hand on Tadashi’s shoulder and smiled at him.

“Hey man, the little dude’s gonna be alright. It’s like in the comic books, when the hero is kidnapped and brainwashed into doing evil,” Honey flinched at this, debating on whether she should stop Fred or let him continue. “But in the end, everything turns out alright and the hero gets saved by everyone else.” Fred had a faraway look in his eyes, clearly imagining the storyline he was retelling.

Tadashi glanced at Fred out of the corner of his eye and a tiny smile graced his lips.

“You think he’ll be okay?” He asked hesitantly.

“Hiro Hamada isn’t one to give up easily,” Gogo added her voice. “He’ll pull through, he might just need a little help from us.”

Wasabi stepped closer too ready to reassure Tadashi. “We’ll find him Tadashi, we just need a plan.”

Honey smiled fondly at all her friends. Here they were, back together again just like they always had been. Honey thought she would never see the day they were all a team again.

“Everything will be okay Tadashi, we won’t give up hope.” Honey gently pulled Tadashi into a hug, hoping to share a bit of the confidence she had started to feel again. Hiro would be alright, he had been through a lot already, he would make it through this too.

Tadashi pulled out of the embrace and wiped at his eyes.

“Thanks guys,” he whispered.

The team responded by telling Tadashi not to mention it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is guys! (finally) Sorry for the delay, it's been a bit of a rough week for me but I'm here now! And my writing inspiration is starting to really come back again.


	16. A New Angle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry everyone. I'm back now though so hopefully you enjoy!

"Aunt Cass knows we're back... doesn't she?" Tadashi looked around at his friends' sheepish expressions.

Sitting in Fred's room they had been brainstorming what to do next when the thought had crossed Tadashi's mind. He had been unconscious when they had come in, so he didn't know if Aunt Cass had seen them.

"Well, no." Wasabi answered, looking at his hands.

Honey picked up for him, "we thought it would be better if you woke up first. We figured she's going to have enough to worry about with... Hiro and that maybe you should be the one to tell her."

"If you can't though, I can do it for you," Gogo quickly offered, giving Tadashi a way out if he wanted it.

"Thanks Gogo, but Honey's probably right. I need to talk to her myself. Um... where is she?" Tadashi stood, ready to find Aunt Cass in the sprawling house.

"I gave her one of the guess rooms on the second floor. East wing." Fred told him.

Tadashi nodded in thanks and pushed out of Fred's room. Walking through the spacious hallways he tried to figure out what he would say to his Aunt. He figured it probably wouldn't be a good idea to just drop something like this on her. Maybe he should ease her into it somehow?

All too soon he was standing in front of the room Fred had directed him to. His stomach fluttered with nerves as he raised his hand and rapped at the door. Seconds later and Aunt Cass was opening the door and smiling widely at Tadashi. Tadashi flinched thinking of the news he brought with him.

"Tadashi! Oooh you're okay!" Cass pulled Tadashi into a tight hug then pulled back with her hands on his shoulders.

"Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Did everything work out?" Aunt Cass pulled Tadashi into the room.

For a moment Tadashi forgot the reason he was there. The room was huge with a full sitting room on one side and a king size bed on the other. There was also a door by the bed that seemed to lead into a fancy bathroom. All the furniture was covered with expensive looking material and trimmed with gold.

"Tadashi?" Cass waved a hand in front of him.

"Uh, yeah? Sorry." Tadashi glanced once more around the impressive room.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Aunt Cass smiled. "I asked where Hiro was, is he downstairs?"

Tadashi's stomach dropped and he looked at Aunt Cass's smiling face. Could he really tell her? He didn't want to upset her, she had been dealing with so much lately. Maybe he could tell her that Hiro was fine and she had nothing to worry about?

No, he had to tell her the truth. She deserved to know what was going on, and she would have to help Hiro too when they got him back.

"Aunt Cass, things didn't go quite the way we planned."

"Oh no, what happened, are you okay?" Aunt Cass's smile faded as Tadashi guided her to the couch and sat down with her.

"Something happened... to Hiro." Tadashi didn't want to say it again.

"What? What happened? Where is he?" Cass's voice took on a frantic edge.

"He... he, Everwraith took him. And I think he's using him now, to help him take San Fransokyo." Aunt Cass covered her mouth and sat in silence staring at the floor.

Tadashi pulled her against him and layed his head in her hair.

"I'm sorry Aunt Cass. It's my fault I should have protected him, I should have-"

"No Tadashi," she interrupted. "I shouldn't have let you go in the first place. I should have realized how dangerous it was and kept you, all six of you, home."

Tadashi hugged his aunt tighter.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again. "We'll get him back, we'll find him I promise."

Aunt Cass nodded in silence. Tadashi sat with her for a while longer as she tried to muffle her quiet sniffles.

"I don't want to lose him too," Cass whispered.

Tadashi hugged her tighter, not knowing how to respond to that.

\---------------

"His next attack is going to be on the university district, the day after tomorrow," Gogo informed everyone. "That means if we don't stop him, we're losing the lab."

The team stood in a loose circle in their robotics lab, brainstorming ways to get rid of Everwraith for good. After Tadashi silently returned to Fred's room with red rimmed eyes, everyone knew that Aunt Cass was now probably even more worried than the rest of them combined were. They knew that they had to get Hiro back as soon as possible, not only for his safety, but for Aunt Cass too.

Everyone looked stricken at the thought of losing the lab and Tadashi wondered how they could stop the villain. The EMP idea had been a good plan, but they hadn't accounted for just how many robots Everwraith had. Their first plan had ultimately failed, so what more could they do?

“What are we going to do then?” Honey Lemon breathed, putting voice to Tadashi’s thoughts.

Everyone was silent as they tried to come up with a new plan. Even Fred was uncharacteristically quiet, deep in thought probably about some sort of comic book villain.

Tadashi thought hard, wondering how in the world a group of barely adults could stop an army of robots. Sure they had all their suits and tech and even a flying healthcare robot. But they were still grossly outnumbered and there was no way they could fight off every single robot one by one.

 _Look for a new angle._ The words Tadashi had once told Hiro echoed around his head. He tried taking his own advice, but no ideas were forthcoming. Their situation seemed entirely hopeless to him, Everwraith had simply gotten too powerful.

“Anyone?” Wasabi asked. Even he apparently didn’t have a plan.

Everyone was thinking the same thing as they all glanced around at each other. _Hiro would know what to do, he would have a plan._ The thought hung over them all as they shifted uncomfortably in the silence.

 _Look for a new angle, look for a new angle._ Tadashi repeated the words to himself like a song trying to think of _anything_ that could help them. He stared at Baymax, packed snugly into his travel case in the corner. He thought of the story Hiro had told him about when Baymax had nearly run out of battery. He'd had to practically carry the half-deflated robot home.

Tadashi's eyes widened as a thought hit him. If Baymax had to depend on a battery to run, wouldn't Everwraith's bots need some kind of a battery too?

"Guys?" Everyone looked up at the sound of Tadashi's voice. "I think I know what to do."

"What?" Honey Lemon gasped and a gleam of hope came into her eyes.

"Baymax runs on batteries right? So Everwraith's bots must have some kind of battery too. What if we drain all their batteries all at once? Then not only can the bots not do any damage, but Everwraith can't carry a whole army back to be charged."

Tadashi smiled at his friends who met his plan a bit less enthusiastically than he had hoped. Gogo cocked her head and popped her gum. Tadashi knew she was about to point out the flaws.

"Okay, but letting all of their batteries drain could take, oh, _hours?_ I don't know what you’re thinking but I don't think we have hours."

Tadashi hung his head and nodded. Gogo was right, they had no idea how long those batteries could last and they couldn't keep the bots at bay for hours even with Baymax on their side.

"Wait, no, Tadashi might be on to something," Wasabi turned to Tadashi. "You were telling me once, something about protecting the coding for Baymax, something about getting a virus? I think I’ve read somewhere that there’s a kind of virus that drains battery life."

Tadashi wracked his brain trying to remember what Wasabi was talking about.

"But that's only for robots that are run over a network..." Tadashi trailed off and stared up at Wasabi in shock. "That's it! A network! How many bots does this guy have?"

"He's gotta have a couple thousand, dude," Fred said.

"Exactly! And this guy has control over every single one! Do you know how he'd be able to do that?" Tadashi looked at his friends expectantly who seemed a bit confused at his sudden switch in topics.

"Uh, no? You can't even technically control Baymax," Gogo responded.

"Exactly! So he would need some way to send them all specific commands! None of these robots are on autonomous." Tadashi jumped and pointed at her, getting excited.

"Okay, so what does that mean? We're not all robotics experts, Tadashi,” Honey Lemon gently reminded him.

“It means,” Tadashi began. “It means that there is no way these robots are individually controlled. Every single robot is connected over some kind of WiFi or Bluetooth network so that Everwraith can send them commands. Same network, same program. If we could somehow rewrite a command that would instead cause the bots to completely drain their batteries, we would take out every single one in one go."

It was a long shot, they still had to figure out exactly how to rewrite a command and which command to rewrite, but it was their only chance. If they succeeded here, not only would they get rid of Everwraith for good, but they also had their best shot at getting Hiro back unharmed too.

“So you’re saying if we put some kind of virus on this guy’s computer, we’ll take out his entire army,” Gogo sounded a bit doubtful but Tadashi wasn’t worried. Gogo always had that sort of way of speaking.

“Pretty much,” he confirmed.

“When do we get started?” Honey Lemon smiled with all her usual enthusiasm.

“Right now,” Tadashi smiled back.

\---------------

“I refuse to go _anywhere_ without a proper plan!” Wasabi insisted.

The first time they had done this superhero thing, they’d barely had any kind of plan and, well, they all remembered how that went. Then, the EMP had been their most complete plan so far and that had also coincidentally been the one that had worked the best, unforeseen circumstances notwithstanding.

This time, Wasabi would have his way whether his friends liked it or not.

“We’ve got a plan, install the new code on the computer and then wait for him to attack, pretty simple.” Gogo responded.

“ _Ye-es_ but that’s just an outline! We need a full, step by step plan so we know exactly what we’re doing.” Wasabi persisted.

“Wasabi’s right guys, Everwraith is dangerous, if we don’t have a good enough plan he won’t hesitate to kill us,” Tadashi added without looking away from his computer screen.

Tadashi had been working relentlessly on the program for the new robot code. As good as he was at coding for robots, he didn't have the rest of the code in front of him and had no idea exactly what he was changing.

Wasabi knew Tadashi wouldn’t rest until he had his brother back, and he couldn’t blame him. Wasabi was worried about Hiro too and the less time he spent with Everwraith the better.

“Exactly, thank you! So what is our plan?”

“First we have to finish the code,” Honey Lemon began, looking over Tadashi’s shoulder. “How much longer do you think you’ll need, Tadashi?”

“I don’t know, an hour or so? I don't have the rest if the code so I don't know exactly what I'm doing..." Tadashi trailed off as he squinted at the lettering on the screen.

“Tadashi, if you need someone to help, I've got a friend in computer science who might know what she's doing too," Gogo told him as she pulled out her phone and started dialing.

Tadashi nodded absently as he continued to type.

“Alright, and after we’re done the code?” Wasabi continued.

“We become superspies and break into Everwraith’s evil lair,” Fred joined in.

“Is everything always about comic books with you?” Wasabi asked. Fred wasn’t stupid, in fact he was quite smart, especially when it came to writing and plot devices. He just usually chose to apply this knowledge to comic book plots more often than not, which often made people underestimate Fred’s abilities.

“Not everything, sometimes it’s tv shows and movies,” Fred defended.

Wasabi rolled his eyes and looked to Honey Lemon for help. She seemed to be the only one really helping create the plan.

“Freddie’s right though, we have to sneak in and find his computer and then change the code.”

At that moment, Gogo returned as she hung up her phone.

“Felicia says she’s on her way over. She’ll be able to help out and have the coding done in half the time.”

Tadashi palm-smacked his forehead and leaned back in his chair.

“You guys have no faith in me,” He complained.

“It’s not that we don’t have any faith in you Tadashi, it’s just, we’re a little short on time,” Honey reassured.

Tadashi reluctantly nodded in agreement and pushed away from his desk.

“Alright, sneaking in is simple. You guys said he had an underground place right? And the computer room you found was close to the door? All we have to do is find that place again, update the code, and high-tail it back here. We can use Baymax to quickly fly us in and out.”

Tadashi made it sound easy. He was calm and collected too which made the plan seem even easier.

“That sounds good to me,” Honey said. “But one problem. None of us remember where we came from.”

“Not a problem. Hiro showed me that he had trackers in all of our maps too. All we have to do is connect one of our helmets to a computer and bam, we can track everywhere we’ve been with the helmet on.” Tadashi grabbed Gogo’s helmet off the table and connected it onto his computer.

Wasabi watched hoping desperately that their trackers hadn’t been tampered with while they had been underground. Everwraith had done a thorough job in ensuring all of their weapons and tech were disabled, now he hoped he had overlooked the trackers.

“Here it is, at the end of 3rd Street in Hunter’s Point. You guys ready to go back?” Tadashi looked over his shoulder from his computer and grinned.

“Do we have a choice?” Wasabi asked.

“Nope. Hiro’s a part of our team and we have to get him back. We’re ready,” Gogo responded with a rare note of compassion in her voice.

“This is going to be awesome! Our first stealth mission!” Fred jumped and punched the air.

A knock at the door signaled Gogo’s friend’s arrival. It was time to get Hiro back.


	17. Stealth Mission

The door squeaked open on rusty hinges. The sound echoed down the corridor and Tadashi cringed as the noise grated against his ears. Why did everything always seem louder when you were trying to be quiet?

They had found themselves behind a block of run down businesses. Old trash cans and dumpsters lined a chain-link fence behind them and dried leaves skittered down the alley. Tadashi was thankful they had chosen to come in the day time rather than risk being here at night, it looked like a perfect spot for someone to get mugged.

“Sorry, sorry,” he hissed as he stepped into the musty corridor. It stretched out before him, gently sloping down and fading into a greyish sort of half-darkness. Aside from the light of the door, Tadashi couldn’t tell where the grey light was coming from.

Down the corridor, a muted red light glowed out of a room off the hallway. That had to be the computer room they were looking for.

Tadashi tip toed cautiously through the hall, wary for any sound or movement indicating Everwraith’s presence. Behind him, he could hear his friends shuffling slowly along the wall with him. He fingered the USB that he held in his hand. Their entire plan rested in one tiny little object, if something happened to it, everything was over.

He stopped at the doorway to the computer room and motioned for his friends to wait. Pressing himself close to the wall, he slowly peeked around the corner, making sure Everwraith wasn’t in there. The room was thankfully empty and the computer hummed quietly against the wall.

Stepping around the doorframe, Tadashi stole into the room and sat in front of the computer. The team snuck in behind him, Wasabi and Fred stopping to keep watch at the door.

“Almost there,” Tadashi whispered.

He clicked the USB open and inserted it into the port on the computer. With shaking fingers he pulled the keyboard closer and opened the window for the USB.

“How long will it take you to change the code?” Honey Lemon breathed over Tadashi’s shoulder.

Gogo shifted over Tadashi’s other shoulder and answered, “It should only take a few minutes once we find the right program and the right part of the code. From there all we have to do is hope it works.”

Tadashi had to remember Gogo was studying to be an engineer too. As much as she loved working with her bicycles and being a speed junkie, she did have quite a bit of knowledge when it came to computers.

Tadashi searched the computer for the bots’ coding program. The computer was well protected, multiple useless programs had been installed to try to distract anyone who didn’t know what they were looking for. Luckily for him, Gogo’s friend Felicia had told him exactly how to find the program he wanted.

It also helped that he was a robotics expert and knew what a robot’s programming looked like.

Tadashi searched through the lines of code, finally finding what he needed. He started going through the lines and changing what he needed, referencing and using the code they had created on the USB. He ran his hands nervously through his hair as he finished and the program updated painfully slowly. The girls shifted behind him, anxious to be out of the place and Fred and Wasabi continued to keep watch in the doorway, glancing back every few seconds.

Finally, after what felt like hours, a notification popped up on the computer saying the update was successful. Tadashi closed the program and grabbed the USB, taking care to leave everything the way he had found it.

He turned towards Fred and Wasabi who were glancing uneasily into the hallway.

“All clear?” Tadashi whispered.

Fred and Wasabi nodded and the team slipped back into the hallwayHe and half ran for the door.

_Almost there, almost there._ Tadashi’s heart thumped frantically in his chest, he thought it would give them away. The door was only a few feet away and finally, daylight. They had done it. The code had been changed and all that was left to do was wait for the attack.

The team ran down the alleyway toward the end where Baymax was waiting for them in full armour, half-hidden behind a dumpster. They all clung on to Baymax as he deployed his wings and shot off into the sky.

\---------------

Tadashi shifted nervously and glanced out the window of the lab. Everwraith was due to attack any minute and Tadashi was getting more and more jumpy with every passing minute. He had a million questions, had Everwraith discovered their plan? Was Hiro going to be with him? Would anything even work? Tadashi raked his fingers through his hair and let out a breath.

“Tadashi, your heart rate is elevated and your cortisol levels are extremely high.” Tadashi startled at Baymax’s voice and turned away from the window. His friends were looking at him worriedly and Baymax watched him carefully.

“I’m fine guys, just anxious to get started,” Tadashi sighed again and turned back to the window. In the faint reflection he looked at himself and saw how tired he looked. His hair was disheveled and dark circles were smudged under his eyes. Tadashi realized why his friends were so worried about him and thinking back he realized he hadn’t had much sleep. Since Hiro had been taken he had been working endlessly to find a plan to get him back. What little sleep he had gotten was restless and he was mostly kept awake with worry over Hiro’s wellbeing.

In the reflection, Honey Lemon appeared over Tadashi’s shoulder and looked at him sympathetically. She placed a hand on his shoulder and gently turned him around, pulling him into a hug.

“It’ll be okay,” she whispered. “We’ll get him back and we’ll win this.”

She pulled back and held Tadashi at arm’s length. Tadashi stared at her for a moment then smiled gratefully. Honey Lemon was always so optimistic, she always had something reassuring to say. He was lucky to have her as a friend.

Outside, a resounding clang echoed throughout the empty university campus and Tadashi’s stomach dropped to his toes. This was it, if this plan failed Tadashi honestly had no idea what else they could do.

Tadashi picked his helmet up from the table and turned to his friends who were tensed in anticipation. He looked at them all and nodded, then made for the door of the lab.

Tadashi sped up his pace as outside, crashing and clanking boomed through the campus. Classrooms flashed by as he ran through the halls to outside. Behind him, Tadashi vaguely registered that his friends were calling his name but he ignored them in favour of hopefully finding Hiro outside.

Bursting through the doors, Tadashi came face to face with a swarm of robots coming up the steps. He skidded to a stop and reeled back in surprise. The bots continued on unfazed and pushed Tadashi down as they moved into the lab. He scrambled out of the way to avoid getting trampled and pressed himself against the wall.

Tadashi counted the seconds that passed waiting for their plan to take action. He was fidgeting nervously as the seconds ticked by and the bots kept moving.

Then, finally, the bots shuddered and slowed, coming to a stop where they stood. Silence settled over the campus as suddenly every bot stopped moving.  Tadashi shifted, wincing at the noise he made, and stared in shock as it sunk in that their plan had worked. The bots' batteries had been drained, every single one of them.

He shakily pushed himself up off the wall and walked up to a frozen robot. Tadashi waved his hand in front of it then pushed it. The bot toppled over into the others causing a domino effect and toppling most of the rest on the stairs.

Tadashi turned as his friends pushed through the doors and the crowd of robots.

He smiled tentatively at them and said, "it worked."

Gogo stepped forward glaring at Tadashi and opened her mouth to say something but at that moment, a shout of anger came from behind them. Tadashi whirled but couldn't see anyone in the area.

"It came from over there," Wasabi pointed around the corner and the team picked their way through the fallen bots towards where the noise had come from.

The group rounded the corner and found Everwraith standing in the midst of his useless army. He looked uncharacteristically shocked as he turned in a circle surveying the wreckage.

When he looked up and saw the team staring at him, he straightened and his expression hardened.

"You. What did you **_do?_** " He seethed.

Everwraith glowered and stormed toward them.

Everyone stepped back except Tadashi who bravely held his ground. He balled his fists and met Everwraith's glare with one of his own.

"We shut your army down, you've done enough damage," Tadashi responded.

Everwraith scowled then his features morphed into a grin as he looked off to the side.

"Oh no," he disagreed. "I'm not done yet."

From the shadows against the wall, a small figure stepped out of hiding and stood obediently beside Everwraith.

Hiro. Tadashi couldn't believe he hadn't noticed him before. Given though he hardly looked like himself. His purple armour was gone and replaced with a sleek black suit. It looked lightweight and strong, allowing him to move easily. Hiro's hair had been somewhat tamed and Tadashi's heart dropped at the empty look in Hiro's eyes.

Everwraith walked over to one of the bots and opened a concealed compartment on his back. He pulled out a compact object and pressed a button on its handle. The object unfolded, lengthening into a full-sized katana.

He turned and calmly passed the weapon over to Hiro.

Tadashi watched in disbelief as Hiro clutched the katana and shifted into a fighting stance. Since when had he learned how to use a katana? Something looked wrong though but Tadashi couldn't figure it out. Besides being under Everwraith's control, Hiro looked slightly _off_ with the weapon in his hand. Tadashi looked back to Everwraith who gestured to him to pick up a katana of his own.

Tadashi's eyes widened slightly in fear. He couldn't fight his brother, what if he hurt him? He had no idea how to properly use a katana and the things that could go wrong if he did were endless. And not only that, but with Hiro under Everwraith's control there was no telling what his intentions towards Tadashi would be. Would he aim to kill him?

Everyone shifted uncomfortably, trying to decide what to do. Tadashi felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back to see Gogo gazing at him solemnly.

She leaned in and whispered, "You don't have much of a choice. Fight him, hold him off and the rest of us will go after Everwraith."

It was all she could get in before Everwraith called, "If you don't all separate now, I'll be forced to kill Hiro. Mr. Hamada better rethink his options, or... lack of them."

Gogo quickly stepped back looking both angry and fearful. Tadashi threw one last look at Hiro before slowly bending down and mimicked Everwraith, opening the compartment in one of the bots.

He pulled out the katana and pressed the button to extend it. It sprung open faster than he had expected, the recoil startling him and causing him to drop the weapon.

Everwraith huffed a laugh as Tadashi quickly picked up the katana and shifted into the best fighting stance he knew. He had signed up for a few special martial arts classes in the past, but he didn't have nearly enough experience to win this fight. He hoped his armour and shields would hold up enough to protect him and keep him alive.

Everwraith flicked his hand and Hiro shot toward him attacking viciously and unapologetically. Tadashi barely got his own katana up in time to block the attack.

Hiro was stronger than Tadashi had anticipated. He never remembered his little brother being this powerful. Hiro attacked relentlessly and Tadashi was quickly growing tired, his blocks becoming even sloppier.

The two danced around each other, battling through the university pathways. Tadashi stayed strictly on the defensive, not only because he didn't want to hurt Hiro, but also because he didn’t have much of a choice. Hiro was unbelievably fast and Tadashi had no idea how he had gotten so good in almost no time at all.

Hiro jumped and Tadashi rolled out of the way, far enough to catch his breath for a moment. Out of the corner or his eye, he saw Everwraith mutter something and flick his hand toward Hiro again. Hiro rushed forward and suddenly it all made sense. Everwraith was ordering Hiro on how to attack. This wasn’t Hiro that was fighting, he was only a puppet, this was Everwraith fighting.

Tadashi stood and dropped his katana. He couldn’t do much with it anyway. He brought his fists up in a defensive position and blocked Hiro's next attack. Stepping back, he looked up and stared Hiro down. If he could distract him long enough, he hoped his friends would get the hint to take down Everwraith.

Hiro launched himself forwards again and Tadashi activated his shields.

\---------------

Honey Lemon held her breath as Tadashi dropped his katana and Hiro sprung forward for another attack. It was upsetting watching the brothers fight. She had never seen Hiro act so violent before, even counting the incident with Callaghan, and especially not towards Tadashi.

Honey Lemon worried for Tadashi too. She knew how gentle and kind he was, he would never hurt anyone deliberately never mind Hiro. But Hiro seemed bent on killing Tadashi and Honey Lemon didn't know if she would be able to stop him. One move from any of them and Everwraith wouldn't hesitate to kill Hiro.

She glanced over at Gogo who was watching Everwraith closely. Honey followed her gaze and saw Everwraith staring intently at Hiro and muttering under his breath. As the brothers continued to fight, he followed the fight closely, slowly turning as Hiro and Tadashi moved.

"Do you guys see that too?" Gogo asked.

"See what? How completely _wrong_ it is that Hiro and Tadashi are fighting like this?" Wasabi responded.

"No, no, Gogo's right look at Everwraith," Honey prompted.

Fred and Wasabi turned and looked at Everwraith.

"Everwraith is showing unusual brain activity, a proper diagnosis is not possible,"

Honey jumped as Baymax spoke behind her. She had almost forgotten the robot was there with them.

"That's it, Everwrait is controlling Hiro and we have to break his concentration," Gogo decided.

"How are we supposed to do that? If you hadn't noticed, he threatened to kill Hiro if we make a move," Wasabi rebutted.

"What if we don't have to move?" Everyone turned to Fred who had his Fredzilla head tipped back and was staring up at Baymax.

"What do you mean Freddie?"

"Most of us can throw something, all we have to do is wait for Everwraith to turn his back then you and Gogo can throw a Chem ball and a disc and we can use Baymax's rocket fist to knock him off his feet,"

"My programming does not allow me to harm another human being," Baymax reminded.

"You don't have to," Fred insisted. "Just get close to him and break his concentration."

Up the path, Tadashi yelped and everyone turned and watched him trip and fall under Hiro's katana.

Honey Lemon glanced to Everwraith who finally had his back turned and was completely engrossed in the fight.

"No choice, do it now!" Gogo hissed.

Honey Lemon tapped out a chemical formula and a chem ball popped out. She raised her arm and launched it as hard as she could towards Everwraith, as Gogo launched a disc and Baymax fired his rocket fist.

The projectiles hurtled towards Everwraith and finally hit their mark. The rocket fist tore past him, causing him to turn and take the full force of Gogo's disc and Honey Lemon's chemical reaction.

Frozen in place by a bright pink goop caking his legs, Everwraith glared at the team. Slowly, he turned his attention back to Hiro and reached an arm out towards him.

Instantly, Hiro reacted and turned his katana on himself.

"Hiro no!" Tadashi threw himself toward Hiro and tackled him to the ground.

Honey turned as Gogo shot past her towards Everwraith. She skated up to him stopping just before she hit him, and promptly punched him in the side of the head.

Honey couldn't help a small grin as she went to join Gogo.

\---------------

Hiro's tiny frame shuddered under Tadashi. He dropped the katana in favour of clamping his hands against his ears. It was now or never. This could be Tadashi's only chance to get Hiro back.

Time seemed to move in slow motion as Tadashi struggled to shift himself upright. Nearly losing his balance, he cursed himself for how disoriented he was. His head was pounding, but he pushed through the pain and reached for Hiro's hands.

Hiro snapped away, rolling up to standing. He snarled at Tadashi.

"Get away from me," he hissed.

"Hiro it's me, it's Tadashi." Tadashi held his hands placatingly in front of him as he struggled to his feet and stepped slowly towards Hiro.

"I don't know any Tadashis!" Tadashi's heart clenched at hearing those words coming from his brother's mouth.

Suddenly Hiro screamed and clapped his hands back to his ears. He fell to his knees, doubled over in pain.

"Hiro!" Tadashi skidded to Hiro's side and wrenched his arm away from his head. He could see a tiny grey device lodged just inside his ear, it must have been that altering Hiro's brainwaves.

Tadashi moved to take it out and hesitated. There was no telling what would happen if he removed it. It was a new tech, completely untested, and Tadashi had no idea what the risks were. For all he knew, he could leave Hiro unintentionally brain-dead.

Hiro wimpered in pain and Tadashi knew he had no choice. He had to take the device out no matter what the risks were. It was causing Hiro pain, and he didn't have many other options at this point.

He wrapped his arm around Hiro to hold him still. Taking off his glove he popped the device out of Hiro's ear and it fell to the floor with a soft plink.

Hiro shuddered and collapsed, unmoving in Tadashi's arms.

"Hiro?" Tadashi shook him gently and turned him over. Hiro didn't respond and his head lolled over Tadashi's arm.

"Hiro?" An edge of panic crept into Tadashi's voice. He held Hiro tighter and shook him harder trying to wake him up.

"Hiro? Hiro, please wake up. Don't leave me." Hot tears welled in Tadashi's eyes while Hiro lay in his arms. Tadashi rocked him back and forth and held him close.

A faint noise echoed around Tadashi's head, a steady beat that disappeared when Tadashi raised his head and looked around the campus. He looked back down at Hiro and slowly pressed his ear against Hiro's chest.

_Ba-dump, ba-dump._

A heartbeat. It was feeble and slow, but it was there and Tadashi's tears spilled over. His baby brother was alive and at that moment that was all that mattered.


	18. Not Giving Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to apologize for how long this took. I wrote it, and rewrote it, and rewrote it again because I couldn't get an ending that I liked. I think now though I have one that's good enough to show everyone. So thank you all for dealing with my GLACIAL writing pace and without further ado, here is the long-awaited ending!

Fuzzy shapes slowly faded into focus, and a sharp smell assaulted Hiro’s senses. Looking around, he was met with plain white walls and impersonal furnishings in the room. To his left, a steady beeping started to get on his nerves and something was weighing down his legs.

Hiro pushed himself up slightly and saw his brother, slumped over in a chair, still in his armour save the helmet.

“Tadashi,” Hiro hissed. When Tadashi didn’t move he tried again, louder. “Tadashi!”

Tadashi blinked awake and when he saw Hiro looking at him he snapped up in his chair, losing his balance in the process and nearly tumbling to the floor. Hiro snickered as Tadashi righted himself and moved closer to the bed.

“Hiro? You’re awake! How do you feel?” Tadashi smiled tentatively, his hands hovering and unsure of whether he should hug Hiro or keep his distance.

Hiro’s expression twisted in thought for a second before replying, “I have a headache, but I think I’m okay? I mean, nothing hurts.”

Tadashi sighed in relief and settled on laying his hands on Hiro’s arm and squeezing gently.

“Do you… remember anything?” Tadashi dared to ask.

“The bots were coming for me and then that was it.” Hiro responded. “Did we get him? Did we get Everwraith?”

Tadashi looked down at Hiro. He wondered if he should tell him. He clearly didn’t remember anything, he didn’t remember any of the mind control or being with Everwraith. Should he tell him? Or would Hiro be better off not knowing about what had happened?

“We did, but not the way we originally planned.” Hiro’s expression turned confused and Tadashi sighed. Shoulders slumping in defeat he decided that yes, Hiro did have a right to know what happened, and if he found out from someone else later, it would cause a lot more problems.

So Tadashi explained what had happened, from the moment Hiro had been taken, to the moment Tadashi had gotten him back. Hiro listened through the whole thing, expression becoming slightly more horrified with each thing Tadashi told him.

“I tried to kill you,” Hiro breathed when Tadashi was done.

“No, no! Hiro no it wasn’t you, it was Everwraith. None of this is your fault,” Tadashi tried to reassure. Hiro didn’t look any less horrified.

"How can you say that!?" Hiro asked. "It was _me_ I should have-"

"Hiro no, there was nothing you could do," Tadashi cut him off. If there was one thing Tadashi was sure of, it was that Hiro had absolutely no control over any of his actions. And Tadashi would do everything he could to convince Hiro of that.

“But, if I had just not placed the EMP like you wanted, or if- if I had run a little faster I-”

“ _Hiro,”_ Hiro stopped talking and looked up at Tadashi, tears brimming in his eyes. Tadashi pulled his brother into a hug, rocking him back and forth slightly.

“There was nothing you could do," Tadashi repeated. "And as much as I wish I could have changed things, there was nothing I, or anyone else, could have done either. It is was it is and you're safe now. That’s what matters most.”

Hiro sniffled quietly as Tadashi hugged him for a few more moments.

“The others?” Hiro finally asked. “Are they okay? Did I hurt any of them?”

“No, they’re all fine Hiro, everyone is fine,” Tadashi tried to smile reassuringly.

At that moment, footsteps approached the room and the brothers looked at the door in anticipation.

“Hey, Tadashi we found ou-” Gogo rounded the corner and stopped when she saw Hiro awake and sitting up in his bed.

Immediately, she turned and called down the hall, “Guys, he’s awake!"

She turned back and smiled in relief, moving to Hiro’s other side and pulling him in to a comforting hug of her own. It was rare Gogo showed her soft side, but seeing Hiro awake and sitting up and _himself_ called for one of those rare moments.

Hiro hugged her back as the others came flooding into the room, bringing multiple shrieks of “Hiro!” and “You’re back!” into the room with them. His friends surrounded the bed, grinning with joy and relief.

A moment later, Aunt Cass rushed into the room looking disheveled and exhausted. Tears were brimming in her eyes but she smiled when she saw Hiro looking up at her from his bed. She made a noise of relief and rushed past Tadashi to hold Hiro and fuss over him.

“Okay, okay Aunt Cass! I’m fine, really.” He laughed and gently pushed her away.

She stood back a moment, staring at Hiro.

"Do you know how worried I was?" She started halfheartedly. "All this time I try to keep you safe and you go and become superheroes? This wasn't in the parenting-101 book!"

"'m sorry Aunt Cass," Hiro mumbled, blushing.

Aunt Cass hugged him again, "I'm just glad you're okay."

“Did Tadashi explain what happened?” Wasabi asked gently.

Hiro nodded but asked anyway, “What happened to Everwraith?”

“I was going to tell Tadashi when I first came in,” Gogo spoke up. “The police took him in, and he’s going to court in a week. Things aren’t looking good for him though. There’s no way he’s going to get out of these charges.”

“I found out more though,” Honey Lemon added. “The police have already interrogated him and his real name is Kiyoshi Tanimoto. Also, it turns out he was destroying everything because he has a little sister who was robbed a while ago, but the robbers were never charged.”

The happy atmosphere in the room became somewhat muted at the information, each person realizing that Everwraith was a bit more human than they had thought.

“You sure you okay dude?” Fred asked.

 Hiro quickly flashed and wide grin at Fred and everyone else and told them he had and that everything was just fine.

\-------------

Everything was absolutely not fine, but Hiro wasn't going to say that. Not yet.

Later that night after checkouts and embarrassing wheelchair rides (The doctors had insisted as they didn’t know the effects of mind control yet and wanted Hiro to come back for regular checkups) Hiro lay in bed in the room Fred had let him borrow, staring at the ceiling far from sleep.

He shifted trying to get comfortable but feeling no less relaxed and no more tired. Thoughts and what ifs flashed through his mind, unsettling him and making his heart beat faster in his chest.

_What if he had killed Tadashi? What if Everwraith had used him to make the bots better? What if he had just_ listened _to Tadashi._

Hiro turned over again and curled up tightly on his side, trying to calm his shallow breathing. Mochi, who had shown up on Fred's doorstep two days after the fire was curled up on the pillow beside him. The cat hadn't left Hiro's side since he came home, and having Mochi there was keeping Hiro somewhat relaxed.

Across the room, Tadashi sighed and shifted in his sleep. He had insisted on sharing a room with Hiro in case he needed anything or something happened. Hiro thought about calling out to him, but was afraid he would be bothering him too much. He shifted again to stare at the designs on the fancy ceiling and tried to take deep breaths.

All he succeeded in was a sort of shuddering wheezing.

A shuddering wheezing that woke Tadashi up and had him across the room in less than a second.

“Hiro? What’s wrong, what’s going on?” In the faint light filtering through the windows, Hiro could see his brother’s worried expression hovering above him.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” Hiro apologized.

“Yeah, but it’s okay, I’m more worried about you,” Tadashi sat down on the edge of Hiro’s bed. “What are you thinking about?”

Hiro sucked in a breath, pushing himself up and deciding maybe it was okay to tell Tadashi. He had told Hiro he was there for him and Tadashi seemed worried enough not to tell Hiro that he wasn't thinking right and it was nothing to stress about.

“I just, I keep thinking ‘what if?’ What if something different had happened, and everything hadn’t turned out all right?” Hiro looked down at his hands and played nervously with the sheets.

Tadashi frowned, thinking for a moment. He absolutely couldn't tell Hiro he was worrying too much. That wasn't what he needed to hear. He searched for the right words then turned himself fully towards Hiro.

“You’re right,” he agreed quietly. “There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ and ‘could have happeneds’. But what's important is that these what ifs never happened, and I think that’s what matters most. It’s okay to think ‘what if’ but don’t answer that ‘what if’. All that matters is what is.”

Tadashi smiled gently and pulled Hiro into a hug. Hiro closed his eyes and pressed himself closer, hugging back with all the force he could muster.

“How am I going to even get through this all? I still can’t even calm myself down when I get too nervous and-“

“Shhh,” Tadashi shushed him. “We’ll get through it together, I’m not giving up on you.”

And Hiro realized that maybe he _could_ get through anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so so much for sticking with me through my first story. I love you all so much and I appreciate all the comments and kudos and favourites. It's given me the courage and inspiration to keep writing and continue learning. So thank you all and a big thanks to my sister who played a big part in kicking my butt into gear and getting me to write things! So thank you all again and I hope to see you around with my next writing projects. xoxo


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